By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 11 January 2014:
The Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Abdussalam Guaila, has given permission for five new sports . . .[restrict]clubs to be set up. They are Al-Ghawas Al-Azrag Diving Club and Al-Bashaer Motor Sports Club, both in Misrata, Al-Manara Motorcycles and Cars Club in Benghazi,Tripoli Star Motor Sports Club and the Libya Desert Car Rally Club in Rigdaleen.
The ministry has set two conditions for the clubs. The founding committees have to find no less than a thousand members to join and who will then elect a managing board at a general meeting, and they have to ensure that permanent locations are found for the clubs’ activities, including training facilities.
The fact that sports clubs have to have permission from the government and the stringent rules controlling them are a hangover from the Qaddafi regime.
He distrusted sports which he said had to be for the masses not for individuals or small groups. Football was fine because it had mass following (and Saadi Qaddafi to promote it) but other sports with a limited following were not. Consequently, they were either effectively banned or obliged to part of the football clubs.
The Benghazi rugby teams, Hilal and Tahadi, for example, are part of the football clubs there of the same name. Tripoli’s Al-Ahly rugby team is part of the Al-Ahly Football Club. Likewise, Al-Ahly Bengahzi not only has a football team, it also has volleyball and basketball teams.
There are moves to end the former regime’s socialist control of sports. Genuinely independent sports clubs are being formed. However, if any club wants to obtain funding, it has to have government permission.
Motor sports, in particular, are currently gaining great popularity in Libya. [/restrict]
