By becoming a Euro 2012 volunteer, you won’t earn money. During the tournament you will work for free almost the whole month of June.

And that’s just absurd for locals, since the Euro 2012 soccer tournament is opening huge opportunities for small and medium business.

Lots of foreigners willing to spend their money will come to Ukraine.

According to different estimates, about 200,000 people are going to visit Kyiv just to watch the final game that will take place in the capital. Instead of volunteering, Ukrainians have a chance to earn some extra money, rest and watch this golden tournament.

So who is going to work for free next year? Thousands?

The organizers’ first step was to involve famous people. Boxing champion Vitaliy Klitschko will hold several interviews with volunteer candidates.

“I will personally hold some of the interviews with candidates for volunteers. Perhaps it will be with you. Join us!” Vitaliy exclaims in a video addressed to Ukrainians.

The boxer called everyone to register on the official Union of European Football Associations website and join the tournament to “gain a unique life experience.”

The next step that UEFA made is giving volunteers a chance to get an internship in Switzerland.

Eight places will be delegated to the best volunteers from each host city.

After this, they will have an opportunity to get a job in UEFA.

These steps look good. But UEFA’s announcement that the football association expects to earn record profit from Euro 2012 can mess up the plans.

Many Ukrainians may fairly reject the offer to work for free at a time when UEFA earns 1.3 billion euros.

Besides this problem, Euro 2012 organizers could meet another challenge.

The main requirement for potential candidates in Ukrainian conditions is English fluency.

Ukraine has a huge problem with finding English-speaking volunteers. It is far from the top skills of Ukrainians.

Even most young people don’t speak English well.

However if the government will gather the best people it can find, it should be enough to form a Euro 2012 volunteers camp.

But what if some of these young people won’t be interested in taking part in the upcoming football championship?

The Ukrainian government planned to teach English to local police officers so they could help guests.

But officials said this program is failing. Ukrainian government is not able to teach enough police officers and other community representatives to allow them to help tourists.

In such conditions, the Ukrainian government has a few choices to consider.

This problem can be solved with a massive promotion of volunteer opportunities among potential candidates.

Ukraine has a number of linguistic universities with students who speak English fluently.

So this is the market that the Ukrainian government should pay attention to.

It is a great opportunity for students to practice their language skills, to get their first job experience, even though it’s volunteering, and to get some useful contacts.

The second solution for Ukraine is to promote volunteering.

The message that the Ukrainian government can give to these people is that becoming a Euro 2012 volunteer is a way to change your life.

Let’s be honest, there are a lot of people who are disappointed with their current lives and looking for their chance.

Becoming a Euro 2012 volunteer is just such a chance.

Why not try at least? You lose nothing, right? So just do it.

Don’t become one of these old people who, in the end of their lives, regret about what they didn’t do.

It’s better to regret the things you did that didn’t work out than those things you haven’t even tried.

So, on June 15, the selection process for future Euro 2012 volunteers opened.

Will this campaign be successful?

It depends on the government of Ukraine and its openness to new recruiting approaches and flexibility.

Andriy Kravets is a freelance journalist and owner of Go2Ukraine.org website.