The 2024 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 4, will be the 4th season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season will begin in March 2024 and will finish with the playoffs and finals in the

BK Arena BK Arena (formerly known as Kigali Arena until 2022) is an multi-purpose indoor arena in Kigali, Rwanda, used mostly for basketball and volleyball matches. Built and finished in 2019, it hosts sporting events and concerts. It is the biggest indoor ...

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

, Rwanda, for a fourth consecutive season. The league was expanded to 48 games, including four venues, as South Africa will host the inaugural Kalahari Conference.

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are the defending champions, having won the previous edition.

Venues

On 19 June 2023, the BAL and the

Rwanda Development Board Rwanda Development Board (RDB), is a government department that integrates all government agencies responsible for the attraction, retention and facilitation of investments in the national economy. Location The headquarters of RDB are located on K ...

(RDB) announced they agreed on a multi-year extension to their collaboration. Under the extension, it was agreed that the

will host the playoffs and finals in the 2024, 2026 and 2028 seasons.

Format changes

The BAL expanded the total games in the season from 38 to 48. In the group phase, there will now be three conferences as the Kalahari Conference will be held in South Africa. The number of teams in the conferences is decreased to four, with all teams playing each other twice. The top two teams and the two best third-placed teams advance to the playoffs. Before the playoffs, the eight teams will play seeding teams to determine their opponents in the single-elimination playoffs. This was the second time the match-ups in the playoffs were determined on seeding, as this was last done in the inaugural season.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The six directly qualified teams were the champions of the national leagues of six pre-selected countries. The other six team qualified through the

Road to BAL The Road to BAL, also known as the BAL Qualifying Tournaments, are the qualifying tournaments of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The organization of the qualifiers is in hands of FIBA Africa. The first qualifying rounds were held on 16 October ...

. ;Directly Qualified (6) *

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* US Monastir * APR * AS Douanes *

Rivers Hoopers Rivers Hoopers is a Nigerian basketball team based in Port Harcourt, Rivers. The team plays in the Nigerian Premier League. Established in 2009 as Royal Hoopers, the team has played in the Premier League since its inception. Hoopers have won the ...

;

(6) *

Bangui Sporting Club Bangui Sporting Club is a Central African basketball team based in Bangui. the team plays in the Bangui Basketball League (LBBB) and has won the championship in 2022. Founded in 2017 as GIBA-BCAGS, under former International player Cyrille Daman ...

FUS Rabat Fath Union Sport ( ar, اتحاد الفتح الرياضي), commonly called FUS or FUS Rabat, is a Moroccan professional football club based in Rabat and currently playing in the first division. The club was founded on 10 April 1946. 'Fath U ...

* Al Ahly Benghazi *

City Oilers City Oilers is a basketball club based in Lugogo, Kampala, Uganda. The team competes in the Ugandan National Basketball League (NBL), where it has won eight championships, the most in league history. The Oilers play in the Basketball Africa Leagu ...

Cape Town Tigers Cape Town Tigers is a South African basketball club based in Cape Town. The team is located in the Gugulethu township. Established in 2019 by three American business partners, the club has won the South African national championship in 2021 and 20 ...

* Dynamo

Road to BAL

The Road to BAL began on 3 October and ended on 26 November 2023. On 21 September 2023, FIBA announced the 20 teams that had registered to play in the first round, which is played in five groups. The final phase of the West Division was organised in Yaoundé for a third time, and

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hosted the East Division finals once again.

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

was represented for the first time in tournament history.

Teams

were the first team to qualify, as they won the

2022–23 Angolan Basketball League The 2022–23 Angolan Basketball League, for sponsorship reasons known as the 2022–23 Unitel Basket, was the 45th season of the Angolan Basketball League, the highest premier basketball league in Angola. The season consisted of thirteen teams ...

on 19 April 2023. APR, Al Ahly Benghazi,

, Dynamo and

will make their BAL debuts. Al Ahly Benghazi, Bangui Sporting Club and Dynamo are the first teams from Libya, the Central African Republic, and Burundi, respectively, to play in the BAL.

Personnel

''As of 26 November 2023.''

Group phase

The 12 teams of the group phase are drawn into three conferences. While the Sahara and Nile Conference were already in place the previous two seasons, this will be the inaugural Kalahari Conference.

Kalahari Conference

Nile Conference

Sahara Conference

Ranking of third-placed teams

Seeding games

There will be four seeding games between the eight teams that advanced from the group phase, held in Rwanda.

Playoffs

The playoffs and finals will be held in Rwanda in May and June 2024.

References

{{Basketball Africa League Basketball Africa League seasons 2024 in African sport