The Rwanda Energy Group (REG) basketball club, Rwanda’s representatives in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2022, will, next week, start preparations for the continental competition.

As champions of the local league, REG automatically qualified for the BAL regular season, owing to the fact that the country will host part (semi-finals and finals) of the competition.

BAL 2022 tips off in March, bringing together 12 clubs from 12 African countries.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Times Sport on Tuesday, Francis Murindabigwi, the President of REG basketball, said the players and coaches are currently on break, but by next week they should start preparing for BAL "if government authorities allow”.

"We are still waiting for guidelines from the Rwanda Basketball Federation and the Ministry of Sports in regard to Covid-19 prevention,” he said.

He added: "In the next week, we hope to get an answer and then start preparations by January 15.”

During the second BAL season, 12 participating teams will be divided into two conferences of six teams each.  Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once. 

The top eight teams from the group phase will qualify for the BAL Playoffs, which will be a single-elimination format in all three rounds.