Basketball Africa League (BAL) president Amadou Gallo Fall yet again visited Kigali during the just-concluded FIBA Women's World Cup pre-qualifiers.
Fall has in recent years been travelling to Rwanda to attend various events, including the BAL which the East African nation has hosted since its inception in 2021.
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In an exclusive interview with Times Sport, the basketball executive shared his take on Rwanda's commitment to supporting sports development, the women's World Cup pre-qualifiers and how he spends his time to make his visit enjoyable.
Excerpts:
Do you have popular spots where you like to hang around when you're in Kigali?
I love to try new restaurants; I am always scouting and looking at where to go. I think that it is great to see that there are many new places continuing to open. That shows that good things are continuing to happen here.
Let's talk about the basketball world cup pre-qualifiers taking place in Kigali. What's your observation?
First of all, I am very impressed with the atmosphere at BK Arena. Watching the last two games that Rwanda played with a packed arena, strong competition, and incredible atmosphere.
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Seeing our two African representatives, Rwanda winning two games, Senegal winning three (before the semi-finals). For me, it's good to see our teams compete with the rest of the world and holding their own and doing even more than that. So it just adds to the continued momentum that is with the growth of basketball.
BAL has been in partnership with Rwanda for the past four years. What would you say is the status of the basketball game in Africa and Rwanda in particular?
Well, when we look at how teams from Africa perform on the global stage, and what Africa players continue to do in the NBA and other top leagues around the world, for us, we are particularly excited and proud of what we are seeing here on the continent.
If I just look at Rwanda, how there's a basketball culture; I attended some local games earlier this year and last year. And to see also that Rwanda has become a destination for top talent coming here to play for the various teams.
What would you point out as the challenges that need to be addressed by the people in charge to get the African talent on the stage in basketball?
I think if you talk about a big area of opportunity, how do we professionalize the entire environment. It's about growing the whole ecosystem and we are starting to see some signs in terms of more young people getting into professions that are going to help build this sports and entertainment product that is going to be consumed globally.
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But I think the main focus right now after we've launched the league and after four seasons preparing for our fifth season is to continue to professionalise the environment. That means working with FIBA to make sure that we get strong federations - the administration of the sport is extremely important, we invest more in talent development at youth level and across gender, you know that the women's game is extremely popular, in a lot of countries.
We have to continue to increase the footprint to have more women competition in more countries. I know we get the question a lot about if we are going to start a league for women. We are working with FIBA, there's a championship for women that FIBA hosts that we are going to support and we want to see it grow.
Is there a chance that the BAL will introduce a league for women?
In due course, yes. I think the interest is there, when you look at the support that the women's game is enjoying here at BK Arena. As countries invest more in the game and we continue to get more girls to play the sport because that's the key driver.
We want to increase participation for girls and for us at BAL we have been extremely committed from day one to make sure that the game is accessible. We organize clinics, workshops, and create competition opportunities for women that are going to certainly lead to the path that we took before, because the Basketball Africa League for men didn't start overnight.
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There have been really years and decades and a lot of steps that have been put in place before we launched the league. So we are in the same process also in developing and growing the popularity of the women's game.
What would you say is the level of engagement and support for basketball currently in Africa?
It is out of all-time high, but we know that there's still a lot of work to be done. We spent a lot of time trying to find champions that share our values. Here in Rwanda we found them years ago in President Kagame who has been a supporter and a champion. He saw the vision; he saw what basketball and sport can do to contribute to economic development.
I think, for many years, we talked about the value of sport, how it helps young people go to become better citizens, better leaders, and just better people who can contribute positively to their communities.
But now we are really pushing for sports to be recognised as a key economic driver and all the infrastructures that are built here.
