The President of Basketball Africa League (BAL), Amadou Gallo Fall has spoken about the postponed BAL tournament, calling upon the African basketball fraternity to observe the preventive measures put in place by authorities in order to fight the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

The BAL tournament, which is a continental competition for Africa’s best basketball clubs was scheduled to kick-off on March 13 in Dakar Senegal,  but was postponed to a yet to be established date as one of the preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Hello Basketball Africa League family. As we await the start of our inaugural BAL season, our priority and focus remain the health of our fans, our players, coaches, employees and everyone associated with our game. It is important that we all remain vigilant and take preventive steps as outlined by health officials and infectious disease specialists to limit exposure to the coronavirus, as much as possible, including avoiding large crowds and practicing social distancing, regularly washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, avoiding touching your face, especially your nose, mouth and eyes.  " Fall said in a video message.

"It is important to continue to be vigilant. We must follow the recommendations of official health agencies and infectious disease specialists, in order to limit exposure to Coronavirus” he added

The competition was meant to be comprised of 12 clubs across Africa divided into two conferences.

Patriots who are Rwanda’s representatives in the competition are pooled into the Nile Conference, and were supposed to start the campaign against US Monastir from Tunisia on March 20 in Monastir.

Gallo Fall also called upon the basketball fraternity to avoid being in groups, observe social distancing, washing hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, avoiding touching their faces in particular: nose, eyes and mouth; and avoiding contact with sick people.

" I am disappointed we were not able to launch our league as initially planned earlier this month, but I look forward to the launch of the BAL at a future date. We are monitoring the situation closely and we will advise as we have more details,” he said.

"Please continue to stay tuned to @theBAL on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook for the latest news updates. In the meantime, thank you for your continuous support. Stay safe and stay healthy..”