Al-Ahly Sports Cultural & Social Club (), also known as Al-Ahly Ly or Al-Ahly Benghazi, is a

Libyan Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club that is based in

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the

Libyan Division I Basketball League The Libyan Division I Basketball League (LBL) is the highest tier professional basketball league in Libya. It is organized by the Libyan Arab Basketball Federation. Teams * Abu Salim SC * Al Ahly Benghazi *Al Ahly Tripoli Al Ahli Sports ...

and has won three championships, in 2010, 2011 and 2023. In the 2024 season, they debuted in the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Each season typically r ...

(BAL), becoming the first team from Libya to play in the competition. Al Ahly has won the

Arab Club Championship The Arab Club Champions Cup (, ) is a club football competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by top clubs from the Arab world. The tournament is contested by a total of 37 teams from Asia and Africa. F ...

in 2012 and 2013. Al Ahly Ly were the runners-up of the

2024 BAL season The 2024 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 4, was the 4th season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season began on 9 March 2024 and ended with the final on 1 June 2024, which was played in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda for a fourth c ...

History

Al-Ahly is the basketball section of the multi-sports club; the basketball section was founded in 1950, although the club had been active before. They finished third in the 2008–09 Libyan League season. The club won their first national championship in 2010, and won a second consecutive one in 2011. In 2012, Al Ahly won the

Arab Club Basketball Championship The Arab Club Championship is an annual basketball tournament for Arab teams. The competition is organised by the Arab Basketball Confederation (ABC). Each season is typically held in October and is held in one venue. The tournament typically featu ...

, by defeating

JS Kairouan Jeunesse Sportive Kairouanaise (), known as JS Kairouan, Chabiba or simply JSK for short, is a Tunisian football club based in Kairouan. The club was founded in 1942 and its colours are green and white. Their home stadium, Hamda Laouani Stadi ...

of the

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

in the final. They repeated for a second consecutive title in 2013. Both tournaments were hosted in Benghazi.

BAL finalists (2023–2024)

Al Ahly ended a 12-year drought in 2022-23, when the club won its third national championship. As such, Al-Ahly was eligible to represent Libya in the Road to BAL 2024 tournament. They acquired high-profile players such as ex- BAL Defensive Player of the Year

Ater Majok Ater James "AJ" Majok (born 4 July 1987) is a professional basketball player. Born in Sudan and raised in Australia, Majok represents Lebanon internationally. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2011 NBA draft with the 58th overall ...

All-BAL First Team The All-First Team is an annual Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, Internat ...

selection Chris Crawford and two-time

BAL champion The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is a seasonal basketball league established in 2019 and first held in 2021. The league is a joint venture by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA, and is open to national champions of FIBA Africa mem ...

Solo Diabate Mouloukou Souleyman Diabate (born 21 July 1987), commonly known as Solo Diabate, is an Ivorian basketball player for Petro de Luanda of the Unitel Basket and the Basketball Africa League (BAL). After playing a decade in France and some years in ...

. On 5 November 2023, Al Ahly clinched their berth in the

, following their 93–84 win over FAP in the third place game. Crawford scored 39 points in the decisive game. As such, Al Ahly Benghazi became the first team from Libya to qualify for the BAL main tournament. The team acquired import players

Jo Lual-Acuil Joseph Lual-Acuil Jr. (born 26 April 1994) is a South Sudanese-Australian professional basketball player for Al Ittihad Alexandria of the Basketball Africa League He played college basketball for Neosho County Community College and Baylor Unive ...

Majok Deng Majok Machar Deng (born 1 March 1993) is a South Sudanese-Australian professional basketball player for Al Ittihad Alexandria of the Egyptian Super League. He is also contracted with the Tasmania JackJumpers of the National Basketball League ( ...

, Kevin Murphy and

Pierre Jackson Pierre Deshawn Jackson (born August 29, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for Capitanes de Arecibo of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN). He played college basketball for the College of Southern Idaho and Baylor University ...

for the main BAL season. After finishing second in the

Nile Conference The Nile Conference is one of the three Athletic conference, conferences that make up the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the other two being the Sahara Conference and the Kalahari Conference. All conferences currently consist of four teams. The ...

, they entered the playoffs as the seventh seed but were able to eliminate the defending champions

Al Ahly Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...

from Egypt. In the semifinal, the

Rivers Hoopers Rivers Hoopers is a Nigerian professional basketball team based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The team plays in the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) and currently in the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Established in 2005 as Royal Hoopers, the ...

from Nigeria were eliminated after overtime. In the decisive

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, Al Ahly lost to Petro de Luanda to finish in second place. Al Ahly Ly's Jo Lual-Acuil was named the

BAL Most Valuable Player The Basketball Africa League Hakeem Olajuwon Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Basketball Africa League (BAL) award given to the best player of a given season. The award is named after all-time great Hakeem Olajuwon. The award was fi ...

of the season.

Honours

Domestic

Libyan Basketball League *Winners (3): 2009–10, 2010–11,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Libyan Cup * Winners (2): 2009–10, 2022–23 Libyan Supercup * Winners (3): 2010, 2023, 2024

International

(BAL) * Runners-up (1):

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* Champions (2): 2012, 2013

In African competitions

FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup The FIBA Africa Basketball League (formerly named the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup) was the highest caliber men's professional basketball competition for clubs until 2020, organized by the FIBA Africa and played by the champions of the league ...

(3 appearances) ::

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

– Group Stage ::

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

– Group Stage ::

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

– 8th Place

(1 appearance) ::

–

Road to BAL The Road to BAL, also known as the BAL Qualifying Tournaments, are the qualifying tournaments of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). While the main tournament is co-organised by FIBA and the NBA, the organization of the qualifiers is completely do ...

(1 appearance) ::

– Place

Players

Current roster

Head coaches

The following people have been, among others, head coach of Al Ahly Benghazi: * Joe Ghattas: (2024–)

References

{{Basketball Africa League Basketball teams in Libya Sport in Benghazi Road to BAL teams Basketball teams established in 1950