RLEF representatives completed their visit to the EU Sport Forum in St Julian’s, Malta, which focused on good governance, grassroots sport, volunteering, anti-doping, innovations and gender issues.

 “The Forum is one of the most important dates in the calendar,” said RLEF general manager Danny Kazandjian who, along with 31 other organisations, signed a good governance pledge in the company of Tibor Navracsics, the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth & Sport.

 In addition to the scheduled sessions, the RLEF delegation met with government officials from Malta and Greece to advocate for the sport in those two countries.

 Kazandjian continued: “We had a very encouraging meeting with the chief executive of Sport Malta, Mark Cutajar and his team, to discuss the stabilisation of our governing body under Maltese sports law and use of facilities for important matches. Sport Malta was supportive and we have relayed results of the meeting to our colleagues at Malta Rugby League.

 “Similarly, while we continue working closely with Greece’s rugby league community to ensure best practice on the ground, it is important to keep the Greek government informed of our plans and progress following the expulsion of the Greek rugby league last year. To this end we met with the head of international affairs of Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, Dionysios Karakasis, to update him of our steps since our last meeting. He provided us with valuable information necessary for compliance with his ministry’s regulations.”