Can Al Ittihad become the first conference champion to win the BAL?

Al Ittihad defeated FUS Rabat 98-74 on Sunday to win the 2025 Kalahari Conference with a perfect 6-0 record.

The Alexandria-based team is the second Egyptian and third African team to win the conference title undefeated.

They were dominant throughout the conference campaign, making life difficult for their opponents.

What comes next? They say they have their sights set on the BAL 2025 title.

However, the recent history of the BAL shows that winning the conference doesn't necessarily mean the highway to the league title.

REG and Zamalek won the 2022 Sahara and Nile conferences respectively, but when it came to the season title, they were nowhere near the trophy that US Monastir took home.

In the 2023 season, Petro de Luanda then beat every single opponent, including 2023 Nile Conference hosts Al Ahly SC, and Stade Malien finished top of the Sahara Conference that same year in Dakar, Senegal. The winner of the 2023 BAL season? Al Ahly SC, who finished second in the Nile Conference, had the last laugh.

Last year, FUS Rabat won the Kalahari Conference but were knocked out in the quarter-finals.

Al Ahly SC, winners of the 2024 Nile Conference, and Rivers Hoopers who topped the Sahara Conference, finished eighth and third respectively, while Petro de Luanda, who had a modest campaign in the Kalahari Conference, became the first sub-Saharan team to win the BAL.

Al Ittihad guard Ahmed Metwaly, who scored a team-high 19 points against FUS Rabat on the final day of the 2025 Kalahari Conference, says they are ready to rewrite the BAL history.

"Even when we are leading by a big margin, we never slow down, that's what we are all about," he said

"We will look at teams from other conferences, but our aim is to treat every game as a final. We want to make our own history."