Dakar, Nov 21 (APS) – The fifth edition of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) will start on April 5, 2025 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, and will end on June 14 of the same year in Pretoria, South Africa , announced the organizer in a press release sent to APS on Thursday.
For the first time, this competition will be held on Moroccan soil, at the Moulay-Abdallah sports complex precisely.
South Africa, the country where the last edition of the BAL started, has been chosen for the final of the 2025 edition, which will be hosted by the SunBet Arena.
Twelve teams representing as many African countries will participate in the fifth edition of the Basketball Africa League.
The winning clubs of the national basketball leagues of Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia will qualify directly for the BAL.
Five other teams will be chosen following qualifying tournaments organized by FIBA Africa, the body responsible for administering continental basketball, between October and December 2024.
The 12 teams will be divided between three conferences. Four teams for each conference.
Forty-eight matches will be played in Rabat, Dakar, Kigali and Pretoria.
Each conference will have a group stage of 12 matches. Each team will face the other three teams from the same conference twice.
The Kalahari Conference group stage matches will take place from April 5 to 13 in Rabat.
The Sahara conference will be held from April 26 to May 4 at the Dakar Arena, in Senegal.
The Nile Conference matches will take place from May 17 to 25 at the BK Arena in Kigali.
Eight teams from the three conferences will qualify for the play-offs, which will be held in Pretoria from June 6 and conclude with the final scheduled for June 14.
Fifth season ”will further showcase talent and passion [des Africains] for basketball,” he said in the press release, the president of the BAL, the Senegalese Amadou Gallo.
The Kalahari conference “marks a new expansion of the BAL in a new country” on the continent, in this case Morocco, reports the same source, citing the president of FIBA Africa, the Mozambican Anibal Manave.
The Basketball Africa League is an annual African competition, which has been played since 2021. It is the result of a partnership between FIBA Africa and NBA Africa.
Zamalek (Egypt) won the first edition. US Monastir (Tunisia) and Al Ahly (Egypt) are respectively winners of the 2022 and 2023 editions. Petro de Luanda (Angola) won the last edition, this year.
SK/ESF
