First match officials qualify in Belgium

Rugby league in Belgium has taken a step forward this week, with its first technical tutors being qualified after completing the match officials segment of the joint EU-RLEF Leadership Devolution Project in Brussels.

Ilias Laarichi and Salvatore Liga of the Belgian Rugby League Association are the first to qualify as match officials, after receiving tuition from RLEF educators Tom Mather and Thierry Alibert.

They also received support from Dutch ‘cluster colleagues’ Tom van Gorkum and Jorge Vasquez.

The Dutch-Belgian group is being mentored by the French Federation. Alibert, the head of France’s match officials committee, will work with the BRLA to appoint the two graduates to National 1 French championship games in Paris for the remainder of the season.

Other opportunities will be available when the Nederlandse RL Bond and the BRLA pool resources to launch the new BENE four-club championship later this year.

“We will continue to teach and spread the knowledge to our players and future prospective referees,” said Laarichi.

The group began their tutor training in Delft, Holland, early last year.

“I really appreciated the depth of the training. It gives us more confidence to teach and referee the games,” added Liga.

“The two Belgians are good tutors,” said Mather.

“It was also very clear that Tom and Jorge from Holland had excellent knowledge and good tutoring skills.”