Pétanque in Libya

Libya's clearest mark on the international boules scene came in December 2024, when a Libyan official was elected president of an Arab regional boules body at a general assembly held in the capital, Tripoli. At the 2026 Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy, two Libyan players finished fourth in the raffa discipline. Domestically, a Libyan federation affiliated with the international confederation governing pétanque, raffa, and volo has organized at least one national championship in Tripoli since the sport's activities resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Al-Zlitni Elected President of an Arab Regional Boules Body

In December 2024, Abu Medyen Al-Zlitni, a Libyan sports official, was elected president of an Arab regional boules body during a general assembly meeting held in Tripoli, according to The Libya Observer, an English-language Libyan news outlet, which named the organization the "Arab Petanque Federation." We found independent corroboration of the same election this cycle directly on the website of the Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale (CBI), the international body that jointly governs raffa, volo, and pétanque: a CBI article on the same December 12-13, 2024 Tripoli assembly names the elected president "Abumadien Zalitani" (a different transliteration of the same name) and calls the organization the Arab Federation of Bocce (also referred to there as the "Arab Bocce Union"), not the Arab Petanque Federation. Twelve national federations from 10 countries took part, per CBI: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Djibouti, Comoros, Libya, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (by phone). CBI President Dr. Mutlu Turkmen and Federation of Arab Sports Federations EC member Dr. Basil Al Shaer also attended. We report both names for the organization rather than picking one, consistent with this profile's practice elsewhere: "bocce" in the CBI/Arab-federation context is an umbrella term covering pétanque, raffa, and volo together (the same ambiguity already noted below for the 2021 Tripoli championship), so the Libya Observer's "Arab Petanque Federation" label may simply be an imprecise English rendering of the same pan-discipline body rather than a separate organization.

CBI's board roster mostly matches the Libya Observer's, with minor transliteration differences (Emad Abu Zreiba/Imad Abu Zriba of Tunisia and Najat Dawdi/Najat Daoudi of Morocco as vice presidents; Bachir Leqah/Bashir Laqah of Morocco - the Libya Observer had listed him as Moroccan alongside Dawdi, which CBI confirms; Jamal Kalil/Jamal Qallil and Hassiba Hamel of Algeria; Mohamed Abideen/Mohamed Abdeen of Mauritania; Sudan's committee member, whom the Libya Observer named Yasser Abu Bakr and CBI names Yasser Babiker, likely the same person under different transliterations; and Djibouti's Qasim Abdullah/Qasim Aden). CBI's listing also names a ninth board member not in the Libya Observer's report: Yasmine Al-Farra of the State of Palestine, a previously undocumented addition to this profile. The Arab Federation of Bocce is a regional body distinct from the continental CASB/CASP African confederations and from FIPJP itself, bringing together national federations from across the Arab world, including Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and Tunisia.

A National Championship Restarts in Tripoli

Libya's own domestic activity is documented through the Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale (CBI), the international body that jointly governs raffa, volo, and pétanque - the three disciplines that make up the "boules sports" family recognized by the World Games. Per CBI reporting, a 2021 Libya Championship was held in Tripoli on 13-14 November 2021 with 106 players taking part, described as the Libyan federation's first national championship after a long pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was followed by the president of the Libyan Olympic Committee and the undersecretary of Libya's Ministry of Sports. In February 2022, Libya's federation supported a CBI national referee course held across the border in Tunisia, chaired by CBI technical committee member Erdal Buyruk.

Because CBI's reporting covers raffa, volo, and pétanque together without always specifying which discipline a given event featured, we cannot confirm from these sources alone whether the 2021 Tripoli championship or the 2022 referee course were pétanque-specific, boules-generally, or another of the three CBI disciplines. Given that the same Libyan federation structure feeds into the pan-discipline Arab Federation of Bocce (see above), it is likely that pétanque is at least one of the disciplines this federation organizes, but a citable pétanque-only club count, national-team roster, or championship record for Libya is not currently available.

Libya at the Mediterranean Games

Libya's boules delegation has a documented, if narrow, record at the quadrennial Mediterranean Games, though it requires careful discipline-by-discipline reading. At the 2022 Games in Oran/Es Senia, Algeria (25 June - 6 July 2022), Rashed Alswesi and Mahmud Issa won Libya's only boules medal, a bronze in the men's raffa doubles event - a distinct discipline from pétanque within the same "boules sports" family the World Games and Mediterranean Games group together (lyonnaise, pétanque, and raffa were contested as separate disciplines at those Games). Libya did not medal in the pétanque-specific events at Oran; those men's doubles medals went to France, Morocco, and Italy.

Before the 2026 Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy (21 August - 3 September 2026), the Libya Observer reported that Libya's nine-athlete, seven-sport delegation would include a pétanque entrant for the first time in this profile's available sources, without naming the athlete. Now that the Games have concluded, both Wikipedia's "Libya at the 2026 Mediterranean Games" article and CBI's own Taranto 2026 reporting show the boules discipline Libya actually competed in was raffa, not pétanque: Abdulmuhaymin Zanto finished fourth in men's raffa singles, and Zanto paired with Rashed Alswesi - the same player who, with Mahmud Issa, won Libya's raffa doubles bronze at the 2022 Games - to also finish 4th in men's raffa doubles. CBI's own Taranto 2026 coverage independently confirms Libya as one of ten nations (alongside Algeria, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta, San Marino, Slovenia, Tunisia, and Türkiye) that competed in the Raffa competitions, held 22-25 August at Montemesola Sport Hall, with no mention of Libya among the pétanque results. We treat the pre-Games "pétanque" framing as most likely an imprecise advance report rather than a second, separate Libyan boules entrant, since no petanque result for Libya appears anywhere in the post-Games sourcing - but we note the discrepancy rather than silently drop it, consistent with this profile's practice elsewhere. Libya finished the Games with 3 silver medals (none in boules) from weightlifter Mohammed Alzintani (two) and karateka Mohamed Abudabous (one), ranking 22nd overall.

The Fédération Boules Libye

FIPJP's own directory of national federations lists the Fédération Boules Libye (Libyan Bowls Federation), founded in 2009 and headquartered at the Maison des Fédérations sportives in Tripoli. Its president is Atwil Mahmud and its secretary general is Kamel Ouhichi; the federation's official contact address, libye@fipjp.com, is issued under FIPJP's own domain, which affiliates this specific body with pétanque rather than leaving it ambiguous between pétanque, raffa, and volo. This does not, on its own, confirm whether the federation behind the CBI-reported 2021 Tripoli championship (discussed below) is the same organization, since CBI's reporting spans all three boules disciplines - but it does establish that a FIPJP-recognized pétanque federation named Fédération Boules Libye has existed since 2009, which was previously undocumented in this profile.

What We Could Not Verify

Beyond the federation's founding date, headquarters, and leadership above, we could not identify an official Libyan pétanque federation website or a domestic club network from public sources. Separately, the Fédération Internationale de Boules (FIB, which governs the raffa/volo side of boules sports) lists a "Libyan Bowls Federation" among its African member federations, with a committee election reported in May 2017 - but we could not independently confirm whether this is the same organization as FIPJP's Fédération Boules Libye, or how either relates to the raffa players Libya sent to the 2026 Mediterranean Games (see above). No Libyan national-team result at a FIPJP-recognized World or African pétanque Championship could be confirmed. This profile will be expanded as soon as further primary sources - an official federation site, additional press coverage, or competition results - become available.