FIBA Announces Participating Club, Venues For 2022 BAL Tournament

FIBA Announces Participating Club, Venues For 2022 BAL Tournament

Sampson Adedeji

FIBA Africa has announced the participating clubs for the Basketball Africa League Season 3 Qualifiers, 20 teams will take part in the "Road to BAL", scheduled from October 11 to 30, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

This year, four cities have been designated to host the qualifiers. 

The 20 teams will be divided into four groups of five teams each, which will be in the East and West divisions. The top two teams from Groups A, B, C and D will qualify for the Elite 16.

The cities of Niamey (Niger), Yaoundé (Cameroon), Kampala (Uganda) and also Antananarivo (Madagascar) will respectively welcome the four groups. These qualifiers will be held from October 11 to 30.

The eight (8) teams from these qualifiers will join the six (6) direct qualifiers for the Elite 16. 

They are AS Salé (Morocco), Armed Forces and Police (Cameroon), Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (Guinea), and Ferroviario da Beira (Mozambique). Also Cape Town Tigers (South Africa) and Cobra Sports (South Sudan). 

These teams were notably champions of their country or designated by their national federation. 

Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Cape Town (South Africa) will be the host cities of Elite 16.

The six best teams of the Elite 16 will then qualify for the BAL 2023 season.

They will therefore accompany Petro Luanda (Angola), Zamalek (Egypt), US Monastir (Tunisia), and Rwanda Energy Group (Rwanda).

In addition, the champions of Nigeria and also of Senegal (AS Douanes or Duc).

Note that US Monastir (Tunisia) is the defending champion team.

Composition of the groups 

Group A (Niamey, 18 – 23 October: Elan Coton BBC (Benin), Abidjan Basketball Club (Côte d'Ivoire), Reformers BBC (Ghana), AS Nigelec (Niger), representative of Cape Verde (to be determined).

Group B (Yaoundé, October 11-16: Nueva Era Basket Club (Equatorial Guinea), BanguiSportst Club (Central African Republic), Espoir Basket Club (Gabon), Tempo Basket (Chad), Vita Club (DR Congo).

Group C (Kampala, October 25-30: Urunani BBC (Burundi), Hawassa City BBC (Ethiopia), City Oilers (Uganda), Army Basket Club (Tanzania), Matero Magic (Zambia).

Group D (Antananarivo, 18-23 October: Djabal Basket (Comoros), COSPN (Madagascar), Kenya Ports Authority (Kenya), Foxes Basketball Club (Zimbabwe), Dekkedda Club (Somalia).

Elite 16

Group E (Abidjan, November 15-20 ): AS Salé (Morocco), FAP (Cameroon), SLAC (Guinea), 1st and 2nd group A, 1st and 2nd group B.

Group F (Cape Town, November 22-27: Ferroviario da Beira (Mozambique), Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), Cobra Sports (South Sudan), 1st and 2nd Group C, 1st and 2nd Group D.