Belgian rugby league has qualified its first technical tutors, following the completion of the match officials segment of the joint EU-RLEF Leadership Devolution Project in Brussels. Led by RLEF educators Tom Mather and Thierry Alibert; Ilias Laarichi and Salvatore Liga of the Belgian Rugby League Association, supported by their cluster colleagues, Dutchmen Tom van Gorkum and Jorge Vasquez, successfully navigated the qualification process.

The group began their tutor training in Delft, Holland, early last year, and Laarichi said: “We will continue to teach and spread the knowledge to our players and future prospective referees." Liga, added: “I really appreciated the depth of the training. It gives us more confidence to teach and referee the games.”

The Dutch-Belgian group is being mentored by the French Federation and 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.

“The two Belgians are good tutors,” commented Mather. “It was also very clear that Tom and Jorge from Holland had excellent knowledge and good tutoring skills.”

The RLEF is in the process of devising a Level 2 match officials course to enable European referees to see a clear pathway high level representative matches and the professional game.