The Basketball Africa League (BAL) on Friday announced the 12 teams and game schedule for the opening leg of the league’s milestone fifth season, which will tip off with the Kalahari Conference group phase from Saturday, April 5 – Sunday April 13 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco.
The 2025 BAL season, which will feature three regular-season group phases and culminate with the playoffs and finals at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa in June, will feature a record six first-time BAL participants, including the first BAL teams from Cape Verde (Kriol Star Basketball) and Kenya (Nairobi City Thunder), as well as defending champion Petro de Luanda (Angola) and 2022 champion US Monastir (Tunisia).
Petro de Luanda and US Monastir are the only teams to have qualified for all five BAL seasons.
All 12 teams include: Al Ittihad (Egypt), ASC Ville de Dakar (Senegal), Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya), Fath Union Sport (FUS; Morocco), Kriol Star Basketball (Cape Verde), Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Basketball (APR; Rwanda), Stade Malien (Mali), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Made by Basketball (MBB; South Africa), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), US Monastir (Tunisia) and Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya).
In the opening conference, FUS Rabat, Al Ittihad, Stade Malien and Rivers Hoopers are drawn in the Kalahari Conference taking place in Rabat, Morocco from 5-13 April.
Debutants ASC Ville De Dakar are grouped alongside Kriol Star, US Monastir and reigning champions Petro de Luanda in the Sahara Conference holding in Dakar. while in Kigali, APR, MBB, Nairobi City Thunder and Al Ahly Tripoli are in the Nile Conference.
Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice. During group phase play, the home team in each country will play on every gameday.
Eight teams from across the three conferences will travel to Pretoria for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination playoffs and finals from Friday, June 6 – Saturday, June 14.
In the season opener, Stade Malien (Mali) will face Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria) at 4:00 p.m. GMT+1. In the second game, home team Fath Union Sport (FUS; Morocco) will take on Al Ittihad (Egypt) at 7:00 p.m. GMT+1.
