Basketball Africa League

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Basketball Africa League
105px
Organising body NBA
FIBA
Founded February 2019; 6 years ago (2019-02)
First season 2021
Country
List
Confederation FIBA Africa
Divisions 2
Number of teams 12
Current champions Egypt Al Ahly
(1st title)
Most championships Egypt Al Ahly
Tunisia US Monastir
Egypt Zamalek (1 title)
President Amadou Gallo Fall
TV partners
Website theBAL.com
2023 BAL season

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league.[1] Founded in 2019, the organization was established by both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and International Basketball Federation (FIBA).[2]

Each season typically runs from March to May, and the current format consists of twelve teams. Each of the teams has to qualify through their domestic competition, a meritocratic system similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League.[3] Six teams qualify directly, while six others have to play in the Road to BAL. The season exists out of the Conference Stage and features playoffs to determine the champions, who automatically qualify for the FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

The first season was held in 2021 and thus far, three champions have won the comptetion.

History

File:Le président du Rwanda Paul Kagame lors de la cérémonie de dévoilement du logo BAL à la Kigali Arena, à Kigali, Rwanda, le 19 décembre 2019.jpg
President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at a ceremony for the unveiling of the BAL logo at Kigali Arena, Kigali, Rwanda, 19 December 2019

On 16 February 2019 the National Basketball Association and FIBA announced plans to establish a continental professional basketball league.[4] During a press conference at the 2019 NBA All-Star weekend, NBA commissioner Adam Silver elaborated on plans to establish the league. He stated that the league will feature 12 teams after qualification tournaments in late 2019. The countries that could possibly host a team include; Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.[5][6] Silver also hinted at the involvement of former U.S. president Barack Obama in an unspecified role.[2] In May 2019, Amadou Gallo Fall was assigned by the NBA as the first president of the BAL.[7] In September 2019, BAL announced the venues and cities for the inaugural season, which included a Final Four played in Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.[8]

On 15 October 2019, the qualifying tournaments for the inaugural season began, with teams from 32 African countries participating.[9] The start of the BAL was eventually postponed twice due to the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic.[10] The first BAL game was played on 16 May 2021, in the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, which hosted the entire tournament. The season was held in a bio-secure bubble with only limited attendance allowed. On 30 May, Zamalek from Egypt won the first-ever BAL championship after beating US Monastir in the inaugural final.[11]

The following season, the league expanded it format with five-team conferences (the Sahara and Nile Conference), which were held in Dakar and Cairo. The playoffs were held in Kigali.

Format

Each BAL season consists of twelve teams. In the regular season, the twelve teams are divided into two conferences (Sahara Conference and Nile Conference), in which they play five games each. The four highest-placed teams of each conference advance to the playoffs, which is a single-elimination tournament which decides the BAL champion.

Qualification

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Main article: Road to BAL

Like Europe's Basketball Champions League and association football's CAF Champions League, the BAL has qualifying rounds to determine which teams play in each season. National federations from African countries are given the opportunity to send one representing club, usually the champions of the respective national league. In the Road to BAL, teams play each other in groups for six remaining spots in the BAL regular season. In the first round, all participating teams are divided over groups, with the top teams advancing to the Elite 16. There, another group stage follows before single-game eliminations are played in the semi-finals and finals.

Six teams from six predetermined countries qualify directly for the regular season, without playing qualifiers, to make for a total of twelve teams. These countries have been determined based on basketball history and commercial market size, and have thus far been Angola, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco (in 2021), Nigeria, Rwanda (since 2022) and Senegal.

File:2020 BAL Combine.jpg
Players in Brooklyn, New York during the first-ever BAL Combine in 2020

Foreign players restrictions

Each club participating in the BAL regular season is restricted to having four foreign players only, which means it has to have at least 8 local players on its roster. Furthermore, two out of four foreign players must be from another African country. A maximum of 2 out of the 4 foreign players can be from outside of Africa. [12]

BAL Elevate program

Ahead of the 2022 season, the BAL launched the BAL Elevate program in cooperation with the NBA Academy Africa. The program places a player from the academy in one of the team's rosters. Players from the same country as a BAL team are automatically assigned to a team, while remaining players are selected from a pool. Elevate players do not share in the prize money that is awarded from the competition, to preserve their amateur status.[13]

Teams

Over the three BAL seasons, 19 teams from 16 different countries have played in the BAL.

Current teams

The following table contains the 12 teams for the 2023 BAL season:

Team City, Country National league National titles Founded BAL appearance
Mozambique Ferroviário da Beira Beira, Mozambique Liga Moçambicana de Basquetebol 4 1924 2nd
Guinea SLAC Conakry, Guinea Ligue 1 6 2004 2nd
Rwanda REG Kigali, Rwanda National Basketball League 3 2016 2nd
Tunisia US Monastir Monastir, Tunisia Championnat National A 8 1923 3rd
Angola Petro de Luanda Luanda, Angola Angolan Basketball League 15 1980 3rd
Senegal AS Douanes Dakar, Senegal Nationale 1 10 1980 2nd
Egypt Al Ahly Cairo, Egypt Egyptian Basketball Super League 6 1930 Debut
South Africa Cape Town Tigers Cape Town, South Africa South African National Championship 2 2019
Uganda City Oilers Kampala, Uganda NBL Uganda 8 2011
Ivory Coast ABC Abidjan, Ivory Coast Ivorian Basketball Championship 20 1997
Mali Stade Malien Bamako, Mali Ligue 1 4 1960
Nigeria Kwara Falcons Kwara, Nigeria NBBF Premier League 1 Unknown

Results

List of finals

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See also: List of BAL finals
Edition Year Hosts Champions Score and Venue Runners-up Third place Score and Venue Fourth place No. of teams
1 2021 Rwanda
Kigali		 Egypt
Zamalek		 76–63
Kigali Arena, Kigali		 Tunisia
US Monastir		 Angola
Petro de Luanda		 97–68
Kigali Arena, Kigali		 Rwanda
Patriots		 12
2 2022 Rwanda
Kigali		 Tunisia
US Monastir		 83–72
BK Arena, Kigali		 Angola
Petro de Luanda		 Egypt
Zamalek		 97–74
BK Arena, Kigali		 Cameroon
FAP
3 2023 Rwanda
Kigali		 Egypt
Al Ahly		 80–65
BK Arena, Kigali		 Senegal
AS Douanes		 Mali
Stade Malien		 73-65
BK Arena, Kigali		 Angola
Petro de Luanda

Performance by club

Performances in the BAL by club
Club Titles Runners-up Years won Years runners-up
Tunisia US Monastir 1 1 2022 2021
Egypt Al Ahly 1 0 2023 &
—
Egypt Zamalek 1 0 2021 &
—
Angola Petro de Luanda 0 1 &
—
 2022
Senegal AS Douanes 0 1 &
—
 2023

Performance by country

Performances in the BAL by nation
Club Titles Runners-up Years won Years runners-up
 Egypt 2 0 2021, 2023 &
—
 Tunisia 1 1 2022 2021
 Angola 0 1 &
—
 2022
 Senegal 0 1 &
—
 2023

Records and statistics

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Main article: List of BAL records

Solo Diabate and Michael Fakuade have won two BAL championships, and are the only players to have won multiple titles.[14] Chris Crawford is the all-time scoring leader of the league, having scored 341 points in three seasons.

All-time participants

File:Basketball Africa League countries 2022.png
Map of countries, teams from which have played in the main tournament and qualifying rounds of the Basketball Africa League.
  Not represented
  FIBA member country that has been represented in the regular season
  FIBA member country that has been represented in the qualifying rounds

The following is a list of clubs who have played in the Basketball Africa League at any time since its formation in 2020 to the current season. A total of 19 teams from 16 countries have played in the BAL thus far.

1st Champions
2nd Runners-up
3rd Third place
4th Fourth place
QF Quarterfinalists
GS Group phase
TBD To be determined
Team 21 22 23 Total
seasons		 Highest
finish
AlgeriaMC Alger GS – – 1 Group phase
Angola Petro de Luanda 3rd 2nd 4th 3 Runners-up
Ivory Coast ABC Fighters – – QF 1 Quarterfinalist
Cameroon FAP QF 4th – 2 Fourth place
Democratic Republic of the Congo Espoir Fukash – GS – 1 Group phase
Egypt Al Ahly – – 1st 1 Champions
Egypt Zamalek 1st 3rd – 2 Champions
Guinea SLAC – QF GS 1 Quarterfinalist
Madagascar GNBC GS – – 1 Group phase
Mali AS Police GS – – 1 Group phase
Mali Stade Malien – – 3rd 1 Third Place
Morocco AS Salé QF QF – 2 Quarter-finalist
Mozambique Ferroviário da Beira – GS QF 2 Group phase
Mozambique Ferroviário de Maputo QF – – 1 Quarter-finalist
Nigeria Kwara Falcons – – GS 1 Group phase
Nigeria Rivers Hoopers GS – – 1 Group phase
South Africa Cape Town Tigers – QF QF 2 Quarterfinalist
Rwanda Patriots 4th – – 1 Fourth place
Rwanda REG – QF QF 2 Quarterfinalist
Senegal AS Douanes QF – 2nd 2 Runners-up
Senegal DUC – GS – 1 Group stage
Uganda City Oilers – – GS 1 Group phase
South Sudan Cobra Sport – GS – 1 Group phase
Tunisia US Monastir 2nd 1st GS 3 Champions

Sponsorship and partnerships

Since its inception, the BAL has been sponsored by multiple multinational organisations, including:

Trophy and prize money

The champions of the BAL finals receive the competitions' trophy, which is inspired by the adansonia (more commonly known as baobab), a common type of tree in Africa.[17]

In the inaugural season in 2021, the champions reportedly received $100,000 in prize money; runners-up received $75,000; third place $55,000 and fourth place $25,000.[18]

Organisation, ownership and investments

File:Amadou Gallo Fall.png
Amadou Gallo Fall is the first President of the BAL, since assuming the position in 2021

The BAL is owned and operated by NBA Africa, a sub-entity of the NBA which was established in May 2021.[19] Since then, the league has been driven by private investments. At the moment of establishment, strategic investors including a consortium of Babatunde “Tunde” Folawiyo, Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation (HFP). Other investors included former players such as Dikembe Mutombo, Junior Bridgeman, Luol Deng, Grant Hill, Joakim Noah and Ian Mahinmi.[20] Two months later, it was announced that former President of the United States Barack Obama joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner while also purchasing a minority stake in the organisation.[21] NBA commmissioner Adam Silver stated that NBA Africa was valued at $1 billion.[22]

The organisation of the league currently exists out of:

  • Amadou Gallo Fall (Commissioner)[23]
  • John Manyo-Plange (Vice-President)[24]
  • Victor Williams (CEO NBA Africa)

Media coverage

File:2023 BAL Dakar advertisement.png
Advertisement for the 2023 BAL season in front of the Dakar Arena

The BAL games are broadcastin as many as 215 countries in 14 languages.[25] All BAL games are broadcast by:[26]

Location Broadcaster
African Union Africa ESPN Africa
Visionview.tv (online)
Canal+ Afrique
Voice of Africa Radio
 Canada NBATV Canada
TSN
China China Tencent Sports
Middle East OnTime Sports
 Egypt Zamalek TV (Zamalek games only)[27]
 Morocco Arryadia (AS Salé games only)
 Tunisia El Watania 2 (US Monastir games only)
 United States ESPN+
NBA TV
Voice of America
International beIN Sports
theBAL.com (online)

References

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External links

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