The two local international volleyball referees, Nello Calleja and Frankie Tanti, have been and will be officiating in a number of matches in competitions organised by the European Volleyball Confederation (C.E.V.) during the next few months.

Tanti has just returned from officiating in one of the qualifying groups of the women’s CEV Cup, held in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, during the second weekend of November.

Tanti, who officiated together with referees from Italy, Austria and Bulgaria, was in his second official tournament outside the Maltese islands, with his first one being a qualifying group of the Girls’ Junior (U/20) European Championships, held in Dresden, Germany, last June.

The teams who took part in this CEV Cup group were Famalicao (Portugal), Nicosia (Cyprus), SLSP Bratislava (Slovakia) and home team TPV Novo Mesto.

Calleja’s next appointment will be early next month, when he will be officiating in one of the qualifying groups for the Girls’ Youth European Championships, to be held in the southern Polish town of Dabrowa Gornicza. This Group E will comprise the Youth Ladies (U/18) national sides of Poland, Belarus, Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal and Lithuania. The other referees joining Calleja in this tournament will be from Italy, Latvia, Germany, Finland and Bulgaria.

This will be Calleja’s second appointment abroad, following the appointment in one of the nine qualifying tournaments held as part of the men’s Austrian Airlines Top Teams Cup, another competition for clubs organised by the CEV.

This group, held in Brcko, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, saw Greek giants Olympiakos Piraeus book the ticket for the next round without losing one set. Second place, and a place in the men’s CEV Cup went to local team OK Brcko, while the other participating teams were Cyprus champions, Pafiakos, and Macedonians Rabotnicki Skopje.

This was Calleja’s first experience as International Referee in competitions held abroad, since his first experience, together with Tanti, was in the GSSE 2003 held in Malta.