The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries that will compete in the 2022 BAL season. The season which will begin on Saturday, March 5th in Dakar, Senegal, will include stops in Cairo, Egypt and Kigali, Rwanda.
In the season opener, Senegal’s Dakar Université Club (DUC) will take on Guinea’s Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (S.L.A.C) in the first of 38 games taking place across three cities over three months in 2022.
The 12 teams include defending BAL Champion Zamalek of Egypt and four other teams returning from the inaugural BAL season in 2021. The teams will be divided into two conferences, the Sahara Conference and the Nile Conference. Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once. The Sahara Conference’s group phase will take place at the Dakar Arena from March 5th to 15th, and the Nile Conference’s group phase will take place at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo from April 9th to 19th.
The top 4 teams from each conference will qualify for the BAL Playoffs, which will feature a single-elimination tournament and Finals at Kigali Arena from May 21st to 28th. The 2022 BAL season is expected to reach fans in more than 200 countries and territories. For tickets, enquiries and more information, fans can register their interest on the NBA BAL website.
“We are thrilled to welcome seven new teams and four new countries into the second season of the BAL. Defending Champion Zamalek will anchor the five returning teams, after representing the BAL in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup this month in Cairo. The competition to bring home the 2022 BAL Championship Trophy is heating up, and we are excited that more fans will have an opportunity to watch the games live in three world-class African cities,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall.
Champions from the national leagues in Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia earned their participation in the 2022 BAL season by winning their respective national leagues. The remaining six teams; Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Mozambique, South Africa and South Sudan, secured their participation through the Road to BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Regional Office Africa across the continent from October to December 2021.
This season, New Fortress Energy (NFE), the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), NIKE, Jordan Brand and Wilson will return as BAL foundational partners. The league’s marketing partners also includes Flutterwave and Hennessy.