BOITUMELO RANTAO
THE COVID-19 pandemic has forced Africa to defer its dream for a continental basketball league.
Basketball Africa League (BAL) President, Amadou Gallo Fall, has announced the postponement of the inaugural season of the league to next year.
Fall said that postponing the historic BAL tip-off, which was scheduled for March this year, was a difficult, but necessary decision Fall. “We had hoped to launch the league before the end of the year, and our hosts in Rwanda were excited and prepared,” he said.
Fall elaborated on the current state of the global pandemic.
“However, the second COVID wave in Europe and North America has created further uncertainty in global transportation, logistics, shipping and supply chain systems and hampered our planning,
“This uncertainty has added significant complexities in bringing over 400 players, team personnel, staff, partners and equipment from over 15 countries for such an event. In light of the prevailing situation, we have decided to shift our focus to launching the inaugural BAL season in 2021,” he said.
No specific date or month has been decided for the start of the rescheduled tournament. Questions remain whether the format will be altered to a single location for the league or whether the league will stick to initial plans of 6 host cities for regular-season games and Rwanda for final Playoffs.
