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The people who are working to make rugby a popular sport in Libya. From left: Abdal Khaled Abadi, Issa Al Bradan, Mohamed Said, Sami Nimir, Khaled Zawawi, Abdil Hafeedh Al-Mahjoub and Mishal Al-Jamae
FOLLOWING South Africa’s triumph in the IRB World Cup Championships a week ago, employees at the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOC) have decided to form their very own team with the intention of playing matches against local clubs and fellow oil companies.
On October 17 AGOC’s Committee for Employee Sports formally approved the creation of rugby team within Libya’s oil sector, even though it is believed that foreign expatriates as early as the 60’s, and also during the 70’s and 80’s had played rugby unofficially.
Ross Cooper a geological draftsman at AGOC originally from New Zealand told The Tripoli Post: “I have seen trophies with engravings going back to the sixties. In the past rugby was extremely popular among foreign oil companies”.
He went on to explain that foreign teams would often include a number of Libyan players to bolster their teams: “I grew with rugby at an early age. I ran with an oval-shaped ball in my hand instead of kicking a round ball with my feet. It would be good if the youngsters here had the opportunity to learn the game at an early age as I did. Rugby’s profile will need to be raised with media coverage and regular slots on television to attract greater interest”.
There are currently two officially recognised teams in Libya, AGOC and Nadi Hilal RFC, both located in Benghazi. A third team yet to be registered will be called Tripoli RFC.
Hilal’s team manager and coach Thair El Heri said it was “excellent news that South Africa have won the World Cup Rugby. Africa can legitimately claim to be the continent with the highest standard of rugby in the world. If Africa can excel at sports it can also lead the way in industry and business too.
“With Libya’s influence in Africa created by the efforts of the Leader, there’s an excellent opportunity now for rugby in Libya, to organise international matches and tournaments and to invite the top teams from Africa thus attracting enormous level of international media attention”.
In conjunction with Nadi Hilal RFC, The Tripoli Post has given its backing to holding a series of local open tournaments and to assist in the creation of a league across Libya to be known as, ‘The Tripoli Post RFU League’. Depending on the level of entries, the league is scheduled to start early in the New Year.
Teams from local clubs and foreign companies are being invited to participate. Sami Nimar AGOC’s team manager explained: “It would be great to be able to play matches against as many teams as possible, especially foreign ones, as it gives us the opportunity to learn from their experience.
“In the 80's I played in local matches for AGOC against Brown & Root, Castrol Consulting and Shell to name but a few. Once the local players got the hang of the game we ended up beating the foreigners in a tournament held over Ramadan, when we were fasting!”
Tripoli RFC were due to play their first match against Nadi Hilal RFC in September, however a tragic bus accident prevented the match from being played.
Hani Shakshouki who has since taken over as team manager from Tarek Benrewin explained to The Tripoli Post: “We are just back training after the accident during which we lost some of our key players. We hope to be in form by January to meet our target of competing again in Malta.”
Shakshouki has been a member of Tripoli RFC since 2001. Recently he was selected as a temporary head of the committee with the responsibility to organise match fixtures. He is looking forward to competing in ‘The Tripoli Post RFU League.
In the meantime, following approval from Mohamed Al Atrash secretary of the AGOC Trade Union who is also responsible for the Committee of Employee Sports, AGOC’s new rugby team is in the process of recruiting players and schedule in the team’s training in preparation for the forthcoming rugby matches. There has already been an extremely high level of interest.
Sami Nimar said that the expatriate community working with AGOC would find it relatively easy now to apply for time off work to attend matches now that there is formal approval for the formation of this team.
Thair El Heri
Invitation to participate in:
‘The Tripoli Post RFU League’
Teams, clubs, local and foreign companies are invited to register their interest in participating in ‘The Tripoli Post Rugby League’ by contacting: Thair El Heri on his email address: thairelheri@hotmail.com
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| Name:
majed elhaif |
Date: 11/04/2007 23:23:49 |
Comment:
iam happy for that iam from 1ft guys get rugby in libya real its one of my days |
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| Name:
jamal hussein |
Date: 01/06/2008 18:05:43 |
Comment:
i excited to hear there is now rugby in my fathers country i will be spending a month in libya in the summer and i will also be in libya for 2 weeks in april time i play a high level of rugby in englnd and have honours i would be happy to play for the tripoli team when i am out in libya please email me back with some fixtures hope to hear from you soon |
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