For the third year in a row, the Basketball Africa League (BAL) is coming to Cairo for its fourth season, where Al Ahly Basketball Club (Ahly B.C) will defend its 2023 championship title.
BAL is the men’s basketball league in Africa, founded in 2019 by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Egypt has claimed two titles in the league, with Zamalek Basketball Club (Zamalek B.C) winning the first season in 2021, and Al Ahly B.C winning the third season in 2023, holding the championship title.
Founded in 1921, Al Ahly B.C is a part of the Egyptian multi-sports club, founded in 1907. The athletes of the club started the first official basketball team in Al Ahly club’s history in 1930. Al Ahly B.C was thus established 94 years ago, making it the oldest Egyptian basketball team ever.
The team has won the Egyptian Basketball Premier League seven times in its history, starting with its first title in 1989 and its last in 2023. It is the fourth Egyptian club to claim the title seven times following Zamalek B.C with 15 wins, Al Ittihad Alexandria, a 13-time winner, and ِAl Gezira Basketball Club with 11 wins.
Al Ahly B.C has been going on a victorious run as it won AfroBasket, the men’s basketball continental championship played every four years and won twice in 1999 and 2001. The Egyptian club also won BAL’s 2022-2023 championship, which helped it secure a spot in FIBA’s Intercontinental Cup.
The team became the first African club in FIBA Intercontinental Cup history to win when it defeated NBA G League Ignite, the American basketball team from California.
This year, the BAL season has 12 teams participating, split into three groups, where each group attends one of three conferences, which is a grouping of teams that compete against each other in a league.
The first conference, the Kalahari conference, took place in South Africa from 9 March to 17 March. The second conference, the Nile Conference, will be in Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Egypt from 19 April to 27 April, followed by the Sahara Conference in Senegal from 4 May to 12 May.
The schedule features Africa’s best basketball teams from Morocco, Libya, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tunisia, and more. The season playoffs will be in Rwanda’s BR Arena in Kigali from 24 May to 1 June.
Cairo’s Al Ahly B.C will face City Oilers from Uganda, Al Ahly Ly from Libya, and Bangui Sporting Club from the Central African Republic in Egypt from 19 April to 27 April to try and keep its title as champion.
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