The 2024 BAL season is scheduled to start on March 9th, at the SunBet Arena, in Pretoria, South Africa.
The Petro de Luanda game will mark the opening of the season. According to a statement sent to VerAngola, at the opening, the Angolan club will face FUS Rabat Basketball (Morocco), which is participating in the league for the first time. This will be the first game of a total of 48 games that will take place in four different countries, namely South Africa, Egypt (Cairo), Senegal (Dakar) and Rwanda (Kigali).
The 12 teams – which include seven that have already competed in the league, as well as the five newcomers, "including the first BAL teams from Burundi, Central African Republic and Libya" – were divided into three groups of four teams each: Kalahari group, Nile group and Sahara group.
Each group will play a phase consisting of 12 games, "during which each team will face the remaining three teams" that are part of their group twice.
However, the news doesn't stop there, as this season "the home team in each market will play on every game day, including weekends", says the statement.
The Kalahari group stage will take place from March 9th to 17th at the SunBet Arena. The Nile group stage will take place between April 19 and 27, at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex, in Cairo, while the Sahara group will play from May 4 to 12, at the Dakar Arena, in Dakar.
According to the statement, the two best teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams from the three groups will head to the BK Arena, in Kigali, "for four qualifying games followed by eight single-elimination games" and finals from May 24th to June 1st.
You can check the full game calendar here.
"The champions of the national leagues of Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia gained the possibility of participating in the 2024 BAL season by winning their respective national leagues. The remaining six teams, coming from Burundi, Central African Republic, Libya, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda, guaranteed their participation through the 'Road to the BAL' Qualifying Tournaments, held by FIBA Africa across the continent between October and November 2023", the statement also said.
The 12 teams competing are: Cape Town Tigers (South Africa); Dynamo Basketball Club (Burundi); FUS Rabat Basketball (Morocco); Petro de Luanda (Angola); Al Ahly (Egypt); Al Ahly Ly (Libya); Bangui Sporting Club (Central African Republic); City Oilers (Uganda); Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Basketball (APR; Rwanda); AS Douanes (Senegal); Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria) and US Monastir (Tunisia).
