Four New Teams Officially Participate In IBL 2022, One Of Them Has Raffi Ahmad

Illustration (Photo: iblindonesia.com)

JAKARTA - Four new teams will officially participate in the 2022 Indonesian Basketball League (IBL), the competition operator announced on Wednesday.

One of them is Raffi Ahmad's team, RANS PIK Basketball which will partner with teams from Kalimantan, Bumi Borneo Basketball Pontianak, EVOS Basketball Bogor and Tangerang Hawks to make their debut in IBL next season.

"Thank God we have got four new teams to compete in next season," said IBL President Director Junas Miradiarsyah in an online announcement reported by Antara, Wednesday.

The four new teams were selected from the previous five clubs that entered the final verification stage by the IBL as potential new participants.

One team that failed to take part as a new IBL 2022 participant was KK Louvre SB30 Malang.

"We also appreciate Louvre Malang, which has not been selected for next season, but does not rule out the possibility of cooperation in advancing the basketball industry in the future," said Junas.

With the addition of four new participants, IBL 2022 will be participated by 16 teams which is the largest number in the history of Indonesian professional basketball competition.

The presence of 16 participating teams means that the 2022 IBL regular season will be marked by 176 matches, an increase from 96 matches in the previous season.

According to the latest plan, IBL 2022 will bring back foreign players for each team with an undetermined number.

The participating teams are scheduled to announce their roster on December 28, before the regular season opens on January 11, 2022.