 |
Rugby union in Libya is a minor but growing sport.
|
Rugby union in Libya is a minor but growing sport.
Libyan rugby is not yet affiliated to the IRB.
Libyan rugby is of relatively recent origin, although it has been played in neighbouring countries such as Italy and Malta, and to a lesser extent Tunisia. It is believed that the first rugby in Libya was played by British troops or possibly Italians. Like many other Maghrebi nations, Libyan rugby tended to look to Europe for inspiration, rather than to the rest of Africa.
The first Libyan team, the Benghazi Wasps, was set up in the 1970s and played against teams from expatriate oil workers. In 1998, Jamal abed founded team called the Tripoli Barbarians, but it was not until 2008 that official club teams recognised by Libya's governing body for sports were set up in Benghazi. [1] [2]
The first official tournament took place in 2008 in Benghazi, organised by Thair El Heri. [3] The first officially recognised body for rugby was the Benghazi Rugby Committee. [4]
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Libya borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest, as well as maritime borders with Greece, Italy and Malta to the north. Libya comprises three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million km2 (700,000 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. Libya claims 32,000 square kilometers of southeastern Algeria, south of the Libyan town of Ghat. The country's official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims. The official language of Libya is Arabic, with vernacular Libyan Arabic being spoken most widely. The majority of Libya's population is Arab. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in northwestern Libya and contains over a million of Libya's seven million people.
Benghazi is the second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 1,207,250 in 2020. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean, Benghazi is also a major seaport.
Touch is a variant of rugby league that is conducted under the direction of the Federation of International Touch (FIT). Though it shares similarities and history with rugby league, it is recognised as a sport in its own right due to its differences which have been developed over the sport's lifetime.
World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competitions, such as the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Under 20 Championship, and the Pacific Nations Cup.
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in South Africa, and the BKT United Rugby Championship in the competition's other territories, the split branding mirroring the format previously adopted in Super Rugby. The Championship represents the highest level of domestic club or franchise rugby in each of its constituent countries.
Rugby league is a team sport that is relatively new to Greece.
The Rugby World Cup host nation is selected by World Rugby at a meeting six years before each tournament. Each of the Rugby World Cups from 1987 to 2015 were hosted by countries that are considered the traditional powers in World Rugby. The first non Rugby Championship or Six Nations country to host a Rugby World Cup was Japan in 2019, after failed bids for the 2011 and 2015 tournaments.
The 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland, in April 1993. This tournament was the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. The International Rugby Board invited the established rugby union nations but also were keen to involve emerging nations in the event, recognising the fact that Sevens was providing the bridge between the developed rugby nations and those whose rugby union traditions were less well established.
Samir Aboud is a retired Libyan footballer who played for Al-Ittihad as a goalkeeper. He was a member of the Libya national team.
Christianity is a minority religion in Libya. It has been present in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica since Roman times.
Rugby union is a minor but growing sport in Cameroon. They were ranked 104th by the IRB as of August 2022.
Rugby union in Senegal is a moderately popular sport. The Senegal national team is currently ranked 54th by World Rugby.
Rugby union in Tanzania is a minor but growing sport.
Rugby union in Egypt is a minor but growing sport.
Rugby union in Algeria is a moderately popular sport. After many years of work, in 2015, Algeria finally created a federation enabling them to apply for member status of Rugby Africa. Algeria has experienced success at the international level causing an increase in overall popularity.
The international reactions to the Libyan Civil War were the responses to the series of protests and military confrontations occurring in Libya against the government of Libya and its de facto head of state Muammar Gaddafi.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) was a transitional government established in the 2011 Libyan civil war. The rebel forces overthrew the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi. The NTC governed Libya for a period of ten months after the end of the war, holding elections to a General National Congress on 7 July 2012, and handing power to the newly elected assembly on 8 August.
The 2012 Benghazi attack was a coordinated attack against two United States government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, by members of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia.
Ahmed Oun was a Major General in the Libyan Armed Forces. He was the head of Technical Affairs and Heavy weapons in the Ministry of Defense. In the late 2008 he was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the North African Regional Capabilities NARC by the North African Joint Chiefs, which is a part of the African Standby Force.
 | This article about sports in Libya is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This rugby union article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |