2022 BAL season
The 2022 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season is the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season began on 2 March 2022 and will end with the final on 28 May 2022. The group phase was played in the Dakar Arena in Dakar and the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo. The playoffs and finals will be played in the Kigali Arena in Kigali for a second year in a row. Format. On 9 December 2021, the BAL announced a new format for the season, with an expansion of the number of total games to  38. The twelve qualified teams are divided over two conference of six teams, in which all teams play the other teams once. The top eight teams from both conferences advance to the playoffs, which remains a single-elimination tournament. Team allocation. On 13 October 2021, FIBA announced the 26 teams from 26 countries which participate in the qualification round. Eventually, 8 teams withdrew from the qualifications. Teams. The twelve teams for the inaugural BAL season had to qualify in their domestic competitions to be able to play in the league, similar to other FIBA-organised competitions. Six teams qualify directly  as domestic champions; six winners of the qualifying tournaments qualify as well. Qualified teams. On 22 May 2020, Petro de Luanda was announced as the first qualified team for the 2021 BAL season. The Angolan FAB had abandoned the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and awarded the team the place without naming it as champions. Four teams made their debut in the competition. On January 14, 2022, FIBA Africa decided to exclude the Rivers Hoopers as it stated that the Nigeria Basketball Federation failed to organise a national championship. Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), Cobra Sport (South Sudan), SLAC  (Guinea) and Espoir Fukash (DR Congo) all were the first teams from their countries to play in the BAL. Foreign and Elevate players. Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players. Qualifying tournaments. The qualifying tournaments started on 21 October 2021 and ended on 16 December 2021, with 23 teams from 23 countries participating. Six teams qualified for the group phase. Group phase. The group phase began on 5 March 2022 in the Dakar Arena in Dakar, where 15 games will be played. From 9 April to 19 April  2022, the group phase continued in Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo. The four best teams of each conference advanced to the playoffs. Playoffs. The playoffs will begin on 21 May and finish on 28 May with the Finals. All games will be played in a single-elimination format, and will be played at the Kigali Arena in Kigali.