Africa meets with others to spur Rugby
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/04/africa-meets-with-others-to-spur-rugby.html
The President of Rugby Africa, Khaled Babbou, has met with members of World Rugby to discuss the future of rugby in Africa.
Babbou who was accompanied by the President of Ghana Rugby and Member
of the Rugby Africa EXCO, Mr Herbert Mensah, was in London for the
meeting with President of Rugby Europe, Mr Octavian Morariu.
They also discussed the project of a World Rugby Nations Championship and its implications for Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries.
They also met with the President of World Rugby, Mr Bill Beaumont and
the CEO of World Rugby, Mr Brett Gosper, David Carrigy and other World
Rugby Executives ahead of the meeting on the World Rugby Nations
Championship.
The discussions touched on the future of Rugby in Africa, its immense
potential and the strategies to keep growing the Game in Africa and
improving performance at the same time.
According to Mr Babbou the encounter was a good platform to give his
vision for the growth and development of Rugby in Africa as well as the
challenges to Mr Beaumont and Mr Gosper and to touch base on the shared
mission and vision of both rugby bodies to grow the global rugby family
and to make it a sport for all, true to its values of integrity,
passion, solidarity, discipline and respect.
“As one of the fastest growing Regional Associations of World Rugby
the meeting served to confirm Rugby Africa’s commitment to grow and
develop rugby on the African continent with its huge untapped potential
despite the challenges it is facing,” Babbou said.
Mr Herbert Mensah was invited to join the Rugby Africa EXCO in
Marrakesh, Morocco, at its 13th General Assembly to contribute his
experience in building commercial value for Rugby Africa.
“Both the formal and informal discussions laid the platform for Rugby
Africa to work closely with its governing body, World Rugby, in chasing
shared objectives and to open the doors for further discussions on
support for a continent that has enormous scope for growth,” Babbou said
Both Babbou and Mensah believe the major challenge is and will be to
establish sustainable funding for the development and tournament
programmes of Rugby Africa as well as funding that will go beyond that
to support its high-performance Unions to excel once it enters the
global stage of Rugby.