The Basketball Africa League (BAL) season is upon us again, and the 2024 edition promises to be another exciting tournament of basketball on the African scene.
The 2023 edition of the competition saw Egyptian team Al Ahly lift the title for the first time after beating Senegal’s AS Douanes 80-65 in the final in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
With the 2024 edition set to begin in a couple of days, Afrosport provides you with all the necessary details ahead of the fourth season of Africa’s premium basketball competition.
When and where will the BAL 2024 be played?
The BAL 2024 is the fourth season of the tournament, and it will begin on Saturday, March 9, and end with the final on Saturday, June 1.
This season will be the first time the league will be played in four different countries—South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, and Rwanda—over four months, marking the first BAL games in South Africa.
The group phase will be played between March 9 and May 12, 2024, while the playoffs and finals will be held from May 24 to June 1, 2024, at the BK Arena in Kigali.
How many teams will participate in BAL 2024?
Twelve teams across 12 different nations will participate in this year’s edition.
Six of the twelve participating teams qualified directly as champions of the national leagues of six pre-selected countries, while the other six teams qualified via the “Road to BAL” tournament.
How many conferences are in BAL 2024?
Unlike the past three editions of the competition, BAL 2024 will have three conferences, with the Kalahari Conference, which will be held in South Africa, added to the already-known Nile and Sahara Conferences.
The Kalahari Conference will commence first from March 9 until March 17 at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, before the Nile Conference, which takes place from April 19–27 at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo.
The Sahara Conference games will be held at the Dakar Arena in Dakar from May 4–12.
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???? Discover the Top 12 African teams who will battle across 3 conferences in the Basketball Africa League Season 4! ????????
Ready for #BAL4⁉️ Who are you rooting for⁉️ pic.twitter.com/a4rV2I4O0u— Basketball Africa League (@theBAL) February 15, 2024
How many games will be played in the BAL 2024?
This season, 48 games will be played in total across three conferences, seeding games, and the playoffs, signaling a 10-game increase from the previous 38 games.
How will the BAL 2024 work?
Unlike the previous two seasons, the number of teams in the conferences will be reduced to four from the usual six, and all teams will play members of their conferences twice.
The two top-ranked teams in each conference will progress to the playoffs, as well as the two best third-placed teams. Before the playoffs, the eight teams that qualified from the group phase will play seeding games for the second time ever to determine their opponents in the single-elimination playoffs.
Which teams are participating in the BAL 2024?
The 12 teams that will be participating in this year’s BAL tournament across the three conferences includes:
Kalahari Conference: Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), FUS Rabat (Morocco), 2022 finalists Petro de Luanda (Angola), and Dynamo Basket Club (Burundi).
Nile Conference: Defending champions Al Ahly SC (Egypt), Al Alhy Benghazi (Libya), City Oilers (Uganda) and Bangui Sporting Club (Central African Republic).
Sahara Conference: Last season’s runners-up AS Douanes (Senegal), APR (Rwanda), 2022 champions US Monastir (Tunisia), and Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria).
