In a first for the sport, European Rugby League has delivered a senior coaching course in Arabic, to observer member Libya. Lebanese Rugby League Federation coach educator Gaby Hadad, who graduated through the ERL CATO (consolidate, application, team, observation) programme, ran the six-week level 1 coaching course on-line to 13 participants.

It is the first time a course has been delivered entirely in Arabic outside of a Lebanese RLF school educator programme, which ran via the education ministry there between 2009–12. The next phase will be to oversee the participants deliver the core skills learned.

Libya Rugby League managing director, Abdul Karim Forjani, commented: “On behalf of the Libyan Rugby League, I would like to express our thanks to ERL and its Middle East Africa region for giving us this great opportunity. It was a well organized and successful course crowned by positive feedback from all participants. We believe that such an intensive course will help us to strengthen the experience of those involved and broaden the popular base of the sport here.”

ERL coaching manager, Martin Crick, added: “The course was delivered on-line due to the pandemic but it is an historic development in the MEA region. The training of coaches and coach educators in the regions, so that courses can be delivered in their native language, is one of the main aims of the programme and this is another significant landmark.”