{"id":60372,"date":"2026-02-27T00:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/basketball-africa-league-announces-12-teams-and-group-phase-schedule-for-2026-season\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T00:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:18:14","slug":"basketball-africa-league-announces-12-teams-and-group-phase-schedule-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/basketball-africa-league-announces-12-teams-and-group-phase-schedule-for-2026-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball Africa League Announces 12 Teams and Group Phase Schedule for 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n DAKAR, Senegal, February 26, 2026\/APO Group\/ —
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 12 BAL Teams Include First-Ever Participant from Tanzania and\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>First-Time Participants from C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia \u2013<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 Sixth BAL Season Will Tip Off on March 27 in South Africa; Tickets on Sale Now \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) (www.BAL.NBA.com<\/a>) today announced the 12 teams and group phase schedule\u00a0(https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4aM5xVL<\/a>) for the 2026 BAL season, which will tip off on Friday, March 27 at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s sixth season will feature the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries playing a total of 42 games across the Kalahari Conference group phase from March 27 \u2013 Sunday, April 5 in Pretoria, the Sahara Conference group phase from Friday, April 24 \u2013 Sunday, May 3 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco, and the Playoffs and Finals from Friday, May 22 \u2013 Sunday, May 31 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.<\/p>\n

The 12 teams include Dar City \u2013 the first-ever BAL participant from Tanzania \u2013 first-time BAL participants JCA Kings (C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire), Maktown Flyers (Nigeria), Johannesburg Giants (South Africa) and Club Africain (Tunisia), 2024 BAL champion Petro de Luanda (Angola) \u2013 the only team to have qualified for all six BAL seasons \u2013 and 2023 BAL champion Al Ahly (Egypt).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Below is the complete list of the 12 participating teams by conference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Johannesburg Giants (South Africa)*<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Fath Union Sport Rabat (FUS Rabat; Morocco)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Al Ahly Ly (Libya)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Al Ahly (Egypt)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Arm\u00e9e Patriotique Rwandaise Basketball Club (APR; Rwanda)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

ASC Ville de Dakar (Senegal)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Dar City (Tanzania)*<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Club Africain (Tunisia)*<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

JCA Kings (C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire)*<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Petro de Luanda (Angola)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Maktown Flyers (Nigeria)*<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

*First-time BAL participant<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcoming five new teams into the BAL family is a powerful sign of the league\u2019s continued growth, the impact it is having on the African basketball ecosystem, and the incredible talent developing across the continent,\u201d said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall.\u00a0 \u201cWe look forward to engaging our passionate fans in South Africa, Morocco, Rwanda and those watching across Africa and around the world as we continue to establish the BAL as the continent\u2019s preeminent sport and entertainment property.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This season, the national league champions from seven countries \u2013 Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia \u2013 automatically qualified for the BAL.\u00a0 The other five teams qualified through the Road to the BAL\u00a0(https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/3ZXbskA<\/a>) qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Africa across the continent from October \u2013 December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once.\u00a0In the season opener, APR will face Al Ahly Ly at 4:00 p.m. CAT.\u00a0 In the second game, the Johannesburg Giants will take on Dar City at 7:00 p.m. CAT.\u00a0 Tickets for the Kalahari Conference group phase in Pretoria are on sale now at Ticketmaster.za\u00a0(https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/3MVtSPs<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Eight teams from across the two conferences will qualify for the Playoffs in Kigali.\u00a0 Tickets for the Sahara Conference group phase in Rabat and the Playoffs and Finals will be available soon.\u00a0Fans can register their interest in tickets at BAL.NBA.com\u00a0(https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4swTSjF<\/a>).\u00a0Fans who purchase tickets will also have free access to the BAL Fan Zone at each arena.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Additional information about the 2026 BAL season will be announced in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAKAR, Senegal, February 26, 2026\/APO Group\/ — \u2013 12 BAL Teams Include First-Ever Participant from Tanzania and\u00a0First-Time Participants from C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia \u2013 \u2013 Sixth BAL Season Will Tip Off on March 27 in South Africa; Tickets on Sale Now \u2013 The Basketball Africa League (BAL) (www.BAL.NBA.com) today announced the 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bal.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/210773ba62abd3f","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bal.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/210773ba62abd3f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}