Africa’s basketball governing body, FIBA Africa has changed the official name of its maiden continental competition from FIBA AfroLeague to FIBA Africa Basketball League (FIBA ABL).
FIBA ABL is expected to run for 3 months replacing the previous competition, the FIBA Africa Champions Cup done within a week.
The initial date of the FIBA ABL which was to commence on January 11 and run till April 21, 2019 has now been reviewed by FIBA Africa.
The competition will now run from February 8 to May 5, 2019 in three stages- group stage, elite 8 and finals.
16 teams will be drawn into 4 groups of 4 and played in a round robin format from February 8 – March 10 across different African cities. Group A will be played between February 8-10, Group B (February 15-17), Group C (March 1-3) while Group D will hold from March 8-10.
Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the elite 8, where clubs will be divided into 4 groups of 2 teams each played from March 22-April 14 in home and away format.
The winners of the four groups will advance to the final to be played from May 3-5.
Meanwhile, the FIBA Africa Basketball League draws will take place on Saturday, January 12 in Abidjan involving 16 teams across Africa.
The 16 teams include: AS Sale (Morocco), ES Rades (Tunisia), JS Kairouan (Tunisia), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Civil Defenders (Nigeria), Elan Sportif (Benin), SLAC (Guinea), ASB Mazembe (DR Congo), BC Terreur (DR Congo), Al Ahly (Egypt), Smouha (Egypt), Primeiro De Agosto (Angola), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Ferroviario da Beira (Mozambique), Rwanda Energy Group (Rwanda) and COSPN (Madagascar).
when is the draw?
Done & dusted…