Burundian champions Dynamo have withdrawn from Basketball Africa League (BAL) season 4 over failing to comply with the tournament’s jersey requirements, BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall has said via a statement issued on Tuesday, February 12.
This comes after the team forfeited Sunday’s game against Morocco’s FUS Rabat in the first stage of the tournament taking place at Kalahari conference of Pretoria, South Africa.
“Dynamo Basketball team has further refused to comply with the Basketball Africa League’s rules and requirements governing jerseys and uniforms, thereby forfeiting today’s game against Petro de Luanda (Angola) and its participation in the 2024 BAL season. Under FIBA rules, two forfeits in the same tournament trigger the club’s automatic withdrawal,” read the statement.
The statement further emphasized that it is a very unfortunate situation for the players and fans and that BAL shares the same frustrations of everyone involved.
“All remaining Kalahari Conference games will be played as scheduled, and we look forward to engaging fans in Pretoria through expanded fan and community events,” the statement added.
The Burundians started the Conference games perfectly with an 86-73 victory but failure to ‘comply with the league’s rules governing jersey and uniform requirements’ saw them forfeit their second game against FUS Rabat and withdraw from the tournament.
It remains unclear if the team will get more fines for failing to comply with the tournament’s requirements.
The saga is said to have been triggered by the ongoing political tension between the two neighboring nations which also made Burundi close all its borders with Rwanda.