Dynamo Basketball Club, the Burundian debutants at this year’s Basketball Africa League, BAL, cancelled their second consecutive match on Tuesday.
The East African team taped over the logo in their opening game in Pretoria against Cape Town Tigers but forfeited matches against Moroccan side FUS Rabat on Sunday and Petro de Luanda on Tuesday after failing to display the logo.
“Dynamo Basketball Club (Burundi) 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,” read the statement released by BAL president Amadou Gallo.
Rules set by the international basketball governing body, FIBA, dictate two forfeitures in the same tournament triggered the automatic withdrawal of Dynamo Basketball Club, Gallo said.
“This is a very unfortunate situation for the players and fans, and we share the 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 BAL president added.
The instruction to cover the logo came from Burundian authorities, Dynamo’s American guard Bryton Hobbs said.
Speaking during an Instagram live post on Sunday, Hobbs said, "the government told our (club) president (Joe Dassin) that we can't play, so they told the BAL that we have to forfeit our game because we blocked out the 'Visit Rwanda' thing."
"My thing is we knew what we were getting into coming into the BAL. People had to sign contracts with the sponsors in the contracts and stuff like that, so they knew what they were getting themselves into," he added.
Conflict between Burundi and Rwanda continues amid border closures between the neighbors in January after President Evariste Ndayishimiye accused Paul Kagame’s government of backing RED-Tabara rebel militia.
Some information from this article was sourced from Reuters.