2021 BAL season

2020 BAL season
File:Kigali Arena.jpg The Kigali Arena in Kigali will host the playoffs
Season	2020
Dates	Postponed
Number of games	37
Number of teams	12
2021 →

The 2020 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season is the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The league is a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA. Starting from this season, it is the highest tier continental league of Africa, replacing the FIBA AfroLeague.

In its first season, the league exists out of 12 teams and is scheduled to begin in March 2020. The qualifying rounds for the season were held in October and December 2019. The national champion of each African country has the opportunity to qualify through the qualifying rounds. Meanwhile, six national champions directly qualify for the regular season.

On 3 March 2020, the BAL announced it was postponing its inaugural season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made following recommendations of the Senegalese government. The BAL intends to start its league at a later date.

Overview

On 1 August 2019, the seven host cities for the BAL season were announced. Additionally, it was revealed that the inaugural BAL Final Four will be played in the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

BAL president, Amadou Gallo Fall, announced at the NBA All-Star 2020 Africa Luncheon in Chicago, that the season will tip off on 13 March 2020.

On 20 February 2020, it was announced that the twelve teams were drawn in two conferences named Sahara and Nile Conference.

Qualification

The twelve teams for the inaugural BAL season had to qualify in their domestic competitions to be able to play in the league, similar to the other FIBA-organised competitions. Six teams qualified directly as their national champions while six winners of the qualifying tournaments would .

Direct qualification

FIBA announced that the national champions of six member associations would be directly qualified for the regular season. These teams are from countries which are also hosts cities for the regular season, except for Final Four host Rwanda. On 23 October 2019, AS Douanes won the Senegalese national championship to qualify.

Qualifying tournaments

Main article: 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

Each of the FIBA Africa member associations was able to register one team from its country to participate in the qualifying tournaments. A total of 31 teams played in the first round, which was divided into six groups in six different host cities. The qualification tournaments started on 16 October and will end 21 December 2019.

Teams and countries playing in the 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

No. Country Team Notes 1 Algeria GS Pétroliers Qualified 2 Benin ASPAC 3 Botswana Dolphins 4 Burundi Dynamo 5 Cameroon FAP Qualified 6 CAF Les Abeilles Withdrew 7 Comoros Usoni 8 DR Congo ASB Mazembe 9 Ethiopia Hawassa City 10 Gabon Manga 11 Ghana Braves of Customs 12 Guinea SLAC 13 Ivory Coast ABC 14 Kenya KPA 15 Liberia NPA Pythons 16 Libya Al-Nasr Benghazi

No. Country Team Notes 17 Madagascar GNBC Qualified 18 Malawi Brave Hearts Withdrew 19 Mali AS Police Qualified 20 Mozambique Ferroviário de Maputo Qualified 21 Namibia Lions Club 22 Niger Nigelec 23 Rwanda Patriots Qualified 24 Seychelles Beau Vallon Heat 25 South Africa Jozi Nuggets 26 South Sudan Cobra 27 Tanzania JKT 28 Uganda City Oilers 29 Zambia UNZA Pacers 30 Zimbabwe Mercenaries 31 Equatorial Guinea Virgen Maria de Africa

Teams

Qualified teams

Team	Home city	Qualified as	Qualified on
US Monastir	Monastir	Winners of the 2018–19 Championnat National A	1 May 2019
Zamalek	Giza	Winners of the 2018–19 Egyptian Super League	4 May 2019
Petro de Luanda	Luanda	Winners of the 2018–19 Angolan Basketball League	25 May 2019
AS Salé	Salé	Winners of the 2018–19 Division Excellence	30 May 2019
Douanes	Dakar	Winners of the 2019 Nationale 1 season	23 October 2019
Rivers Hoopers	Port Harcourt	Winners of the 2019 NBBF President Cup	17 November 2019
GS Pétroliers	Algiers	West Division winners	30 November 2019
FAP	Yaoundé	West Division runners-up	30 November 2019
AS Police	Bamako	West Division third place	1 December 2019
Patriots	Kigali	East Division winners	21 December 2019
GNBC	Vakinankaratra	East Division runners-up	21 December 2019
Ferroviário de Maputo	Maputo	East Division third place	22 December 2019

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
AS Douanes	Pabi Gueye
AS Salé	Said Bouzidi			Jordan
AS Police	Moussa Sogoré
FAP	Gilles Kouamo
Ferroviário de Maputo	Milagre Macome
GNBC	Lova Navalona Raharidera
GS Pétroliers	Mohamed Krideche
Patriots	Dean Murray
Petro de Luanda	Lazare Adingono
Rivers Hoopers	Ogoh Odaudu
US Monastir	Miodrag Perišić
Zamalek	Tarek Selim

Foreign players

Team	African		Non-African
	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4
AS Douanes			Gerel Simmons
AS Salé	Deuce Bello		Terrell Stoglin	Tony Mitchell
AS Police	Dércio Mula	Saliou Ndiaye	Malcolm White	Tim Steed
FAP			Jordan Rezendes	Matthew Hezekiah
Ferroviário de Maputo	Gracin Bakumanya	Adjehi Baru	Álvaro Calvo	Rashad Whack
GNBC			Rashaad Singleton
GS Pétroliers	Rolly Fula		Demarius Bolds
Patriots	A'Darius Pegues	Guibert Nijimbere
Petro de Luanda
Rivers Hoopers	Ahmed Hamdy		Kaylon Tappin	Billy Baptist
US Monastir	Ater Majok	Alhaji Mohammed	Chris Crawford	Andre Washington III
Zamalek	Matthew Bryan-Amaning	Maxi Shamba	Wayne Arnold	Mike Taylor

Venues

Kigali

Cairo

Luanda

Dakar

Lagos

Monastir

Salé

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Location of venues of the 2020 BAL season.
Red: Sahara Conferences; Yellow: Nile Conference; Green: Playoffs & Finals.

On 1 August 2019, the NBA announced the seven host cities for the regular season. Six cities in six countries would host the regular season games, with three assigned to each conference. The Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda was announced as venue for the inaugural Final Four.

Arena	Capacity	Location
Dakar Arena	15,000	Dakar, Senegal
Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex	16,500	Cairo, Egypt
Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000	Salé, Morocco
Kilamba Arena	12,270	Luanda, Angola
Kigali Arena (Final Four)	10,000	Kigali, Rwanda
National Stadium	3,000	Lagos, Nigeria
Mohamed-Mzali Sports Hall	4,075	Monastir, Tunisia

Qualifying Tournaments

Main article: 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

In the qualifying rounds, 32 teams from 32 countries participated in the West and East Division. The first round began 15 October and ended 3 November 2019, with sixteen teams advancing to the second round. The second-round games began 26 November and will end 22 December 2019, with six teams qualifying for the regular season.

Teams

Main article: 2020 BAL season squads

Transactions

Main article: List of 2020 BAL season transactions

Regular season

Main article: 2020 BAL regular season

In the regular season, twelve teams play in two Conferences with six teams each. Each team will play five games, one against each opponent, inside its conference. The top three teams from each conference advance to the Super 6. The games will be played in six arenas divided over the African continent. The regular season will start in March 2020.

Nile Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		USM	FAP	RIV	FER	ZAM	PAT
1	US Monastir	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to Playoffs		—
2	FAP	0	0	0	0	0	0				—
3	Rivers Hoopers	0	0	0	0	0	0					—
4	Ferroviário de Maputo	0	0	0	0	0	0						—
5	Zamalek	0	0	0	0	0	0							—
6	Patriots	0	0	0	0	0	0								—

First match(es) will be played: 13 March 2020. Source: FIBA

Sahara Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		GSP	GNB	DOU	ASS	POL	PET
1	GS Pétroliers	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to Playoffs		—
2	GNBC	0	0	0	0	0	0				—
3	AS Douanes	0	0	0	0	0	0					—
4	AS Salé	0	0	0	0	0	0						—
5	AS Police	0	0	0	0	0	0							—
6	Petro de Luanda	0	0	0	0	0	0								—

First match(es) will be played: 20 March 2020. Source: FIBA

Playoffs

Main article: 2020 BAL Playoffs

The season concludes with the play-offs which will be played in the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Final
	TBD
					TBD
	TBD
									TBD
	TBD
					TBD
	TBD