By Sharon Ekhiwere
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) have fixed a kickoff date and rolled out the entire schedule for the 4th season of the basketball tournament in Africa, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
With a kickoff date of March 9th, the 4th season of the league is set to witness the top 12 African club teams compete in a record 48 games across four countries: South Africa (Pretoria), Egypt (Cairo), Senegal (Dakar), and Rwanda (Kigali), a groundbreaking first for the league.
The league commences with preliminary games from the Kalahari Conference in Pretoria (March 9th to 17th), the Nile Conference in Cairo (April 19 to 27) and the Sahara Conference in Dakar, Senegal (May 4th to 12th).
The top two teams from each of the three conferences and the top two third-place teams will travel to Kigali, Rwanda, for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination playoffs and finals from May 24 through June 1. It is the first time since the start of the BAL in 2020 that games will be played at four African locations.
In a statement, BAL president Amadou Gallo said, “We are thrilled to play the first BAL games in Pretoria, South Africa, and to return to Dakar, Cairo and Kigali, where we’ve seen tremendous fan engagement over the past three seasons.”