With Queens Park’s State Football Centre nearing completion, excitement is building as the biggest show in women’s football, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, draws closer.
While the tournament will begin on Thursday July 2023 across Australia and New Zealand, there’s a lot to prepare, and volunteers like Gosnells’ Syeda Maisara Muzaffar will be the lifeblood of the preparations.
Despite only being a recent high-school graduate, Syeda has been a life-long volunteer.
She was awarded the ADF Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award in year 12, has sat in the WA Youth Parliament, is a UN Youth Facilitator, a board member for charity organisation Ubuntu and a City of Canning Youth Ambassador.
She is excited to join the 3000 other volunteers Australia-wide that will support visiting national teams in their bid to become best in the world.
In Perth there will be 450 volunteers, with 12 of those, including Syeda, based at the State Football Centre.
The SFC volunteers will be entrusted with training psychology, team surfaces and media operations, supporting the teams and media that will flood the SFC in the lead-up to the tournament proper.
Syeda, who will be acting as an accreditation volunteer, said the idea to volunteer for the 2023 FIFAWWC came naturally.
“Volunteering has always been a passion of mine and so has football,” she said.
“There’s a phrase, if you love your work, you’ll never work a day in your life, and I think that applies to volunteering as well and I love football, so it just made sense, I aligned my passions with my volunteering and here I am.
“I’ll be an accreditation volunteer, so I’ll be working at all the games at the stadium, bringing people in, scanning tickets, making sure they get to the right seats.
“It will be fantastic just to play a small part in this historic event.”
Last week Syeda received her official adidas volunteer uniform, and she couldn’t be happier.
“It’s really comfortable, the colour scheme is great and it stands out, nobody will have trouble spotting that I’m a volunteer.”
