TheCable

Amadou Gallo Fall, president of Basketball Africa League (BAL), says the continent misses Nigeria amid the country’s ban from the sport over political interference.

Fall, who is in Nigeria to see some of the ongoing premier league final-8 playoffs as a guest of Musa Kida, the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), spoke on Thursday.

“Nigeria is going to be always missed in Africa in whatever competition as the most populous nation on the continent,” he said.

“You know we have a long history with the athletes and administrators here in basketball and BAL indeed Africa has so many good friends in the basketball fraternity here, just as there are a lot of people active in the sport and its leadership internationally from Nigeria.”

The continental basketball chief, who described Nigeria’s absence as regrettable, also said: “I am glad that we are back here and glad to see the country move in the right direction in term of having unified front, ultimately that’s what we want.

“We all have the same objectives of growing the game of basketball and bringing all people who can contribute to come in and shoot in the same basketball.”

Fall said the current atmosphere presented a fresh opportunity for the NBBF and BAL to work in synergy with a view to making basketball grow in Nigeria and Africa.

The Nigerian playoff which ends on Saturday at the National Stadium, Surulere is essentially to select the country’s representative for the 2022/23 season playoffs in Kigali, Rwanda.

Although the BAL playoff has only one club representative from each African country, Fall admitted there is still a prospect for expansion in the near future.

“This is not the final structure. Things won’t remain like this in five years to come. We are building up gradually,” he said.