The Basketball Africa League (BAL) today announced that the league’s sixth season will tip off on Friday, March 27 at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, and culminate with 2026 BAL Finals on Sunday, May 31 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. The 2026 BAL season will feature the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries playing 42 games in Pretoria; Rabat, Morocco; and Kigali.
This season, the 12 teams will be divided into two conferences of six teams each. Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once. The Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from March 27 – Sunday, April 5 in Pretoria. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Friday, April 24 – Sunday, May 3 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat. Eight teams from across the two conferences will qualify for the Playoffs in Kigali from Friday, May 22 – May 31. Fans can visit https://BAL.NBA.com to register their interest in tickets.
“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 amazing competition and energy on and off the court to a global audience when the season tips off.”
“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,” said FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave. “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.”
In addition to the games, the BAL will celebrate the convergence of basketball and African culture through the music, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment that surrounds today’s game, highlighted by appearances from leading celebrities and influencers. The league will also collaborate with its partners to host basketball development and social impact programming in the three host markets as well as Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal, including youth, coach and referee clinics, children’s literacy and educational initiatives, media networking, and a series of camps and workshops for young women as part of BAL4HER, the league’s platform for advancing gender equality in the African sports ecosystem.
Rwanda Development Board will return as BAL Foundational Partner. Additional BAL partners include Afreximbank, Air Senegal, Amazon Web Services, Castle Lite, the French Embassy in Senegal, and RwandAir.
On June 14, 2025, Libya’s Alahli Tripoli became the first Libyan team to win the BAL Finals after previous champions from Angola, Egypt and Tunisia. The 2025 BAL season reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, set an attendance record of more than 140,000 fans, and generated more than 1.2 billion impressions across NBA and BAL social media channels.
The 12 participating teams and additional information about the 2026 BAL season will be announced at a later date.
Africa Fact: On bling culture, one seventeenth century visitor to southern African empire of Monomotapa, that ruled over this vast region, wrote that: “The people dress in various ways: at court of the Kings their grandees wear cloths of rich silk, damask, satin, gold and silk cloth; these are three widths of satin, each width four covados [2.64m], each sewn to the next, sometimes with gold lace in between, trimmed on two sides, like a carpet, with a gold and silk fringe, sewn in place with a two fingers’ wide ribbon, woven with gold roses on silk.”
Africa Fact: Southern Africans mined gold on an epic scale. One modern writer tells us that: “The estimated amount of gold ore mined from the entire region by the ancients was staggering, exceeding 43 million tons. The ore yielded nearly 700 tons of pure gold which today would be valued at over $7.5 billion.”
Mud Pie Man
Sport Trivia: Which South African who played between 1949 and 1960 was named a Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1956? Answer: Hugh Tayfield. Hugh Tayfield once bowled 137 consecutive dot balls in a 1956/57 Test match against England which was held in Durban. Statistics for bowlers who have played 20 or more tests show that Hugh Tayfield conceded only 1.64 runs per over during his test career.
Houston Rocket
Sport Trivia: In 2005, this South African made a record eleventh win at the Molokai World Surf Ski Championships, ten of which were consecutive wins. He has also won the South Africa Iron Man competition four times. Answer: Oscar Chalupsky – has also represented South Africa in the 1992 Olympics as captain and participant in the canoe team. He holds various South African and international titles.