Basketball Africa League Sixth Season to Tip Off on March 27 in South Africa

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced that its sixth season will tip off on Friday, March 27 at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, before culminating in the 2026 BAL Finals on Sunday, May 31 at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

The 2026 BAL season will feature 12 top club teams from 12 African countries, competing in 42 games across three host cities: Pretoria, Rabat in Morocco, and Kigali. The league continues to expand its footprint across the continent as Africa’s premier men’s professional basketball competition.

For the upcoming season, the 12 teams will be split into two conferences of six teams each. Each conference will play a 15-game group phase, with teams facing every other team in their conference once. The Kalahari Conference group phase will run from March 27 to Sunday, April 5 in Pretoria, while the Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Friday, April 24 to Sunday, May 3 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat.

At the conclusion of the group stages, eight teams from across the two conferences will advance to the Playoffs, which will be held in Kigali from Friday, May 22 to May 31, when the 2026 BAL champion will be crowned.

“Returning to South Africa, Morocco and Rwanda for our sixth season speaks to the strong sporting cultures and rapidly growing basketball ecosystems in those countries,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall. “The BAL continues to inspire fans across the continent and drive opportunities and global recognition for African talent. We look forward to welcoming fans to BAL games in all three markets and to showcasing incredible competition and energy on and off the court to a global audience when the season tips off.”

FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave also highlighted the league’s growing influence across the region.

“As we approach the tip off of the sixth Basketball Africa League season, we can celebrate the league’s growing impact and the way this competition continues to elevate the game across the region,” Manave said. “We also continue to see the importance of the Road to the BAL as a pathway that expands access and strengthens competition across the continent. Entering the sixth season with such momentum is a testament to the BAL’s influence on players, clubs and communities, and we look forward to another year of exceptional basketball.”

Beyond the on-court action, the BAL will once again showcase the intersection of basketball and African culture through music, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment, with appearances by leading celebrities and influencers. The league will also work with its partners to deliver basketball development and social impact programmes in the three host markets, as well as in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.

These initiatives will include youth, coach and referee clinics, children’s literacy and education programmes, media networking events, and camps and workshops for young women under BAL4HER, the league’s platform dedicated to advancing gender equality within the African sports ecosystem.

The Rwanda Development Board will return as a BAL Foundational Partner, while other partners include Afreximbank, Air Senegal, Amazon Web Services, Castle Lite, the French Embassy in Senegal and RwandAir.

The BAL’s profile continues to rise globally. On June 14, 2025, Libya’s Alahli Tripoli became the first Libyan club to win the BAL Finals, following previous champions from Angola, Egypt and Tunisia. The 2025 season reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, set a new attendance record of more than 140,000 fans, and generated over 1.2 billion impressions across NBA and BAL social media platforms.

The 12 participating teams and further details about the 2026 BAL season will be announced at a later date.