Competition System

A total of twenty six (26) teams will participate in the 2021 Basketball Africa League qualifying tournament (Road to BAL).
The Group Phase will take place from October 19 to 31, 2021.

QUALIFICATION SYSTEM

Group Phase
The twenty six (26) registered teams will be divided into six groups of 4 to 5 teams.
The West Division comprise of Groups A, B and C, and East Division will comprise of Groups D, E and F.
Each team will play one game against the other team in their group.
The two (2) teams that finish in the top two places of each group will qualify for Elite 16 Round.
Additionally, four (4) teams will be awarded wild cards to complete the Elite 16 Round.
Below is the composition of the groups:

Four (4) cities: Johannesburg (South Africa), Yaounde (Cameroon), Conakry (Guinea) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) will host the Group Phase.

Elite 16 Round
These 16 teams will be divided into two (2) groups (G and H) of eight (8) teams each.
Elite 16 Round will take place from 16-21 November (Group G) and 14-19 December (Group H).
The teams that finish in the top three places of Groups G and H will qualify for the Final Phase of Basketball Africa league.
These six teams will join the six automatically-qualified teams from Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia + yet to be determined.