SAFF Championship

SAFF Championship
	Original SAFF Championship trophy
Organising body	SAFF
Founded	1993;31 years ago (as SAARC Gold Cup)
Region	South Asia
Number of teams	7 Bangladesh ; Bhutan ; India ; Maldives ; Nepal ; Pakistan ; Sri Lanka ;
Current champions	India (9th title)
Most successful team(s)	India (9 titles)
Website	saffederation.org
	2023 SAFF Championship

Last updated March 15, 2024

The South Asian Football Federation Championship (erstwhile South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup and South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup), is the main subcontinental international association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). All seven teams are eligible to compete in tournament.

History

The countries that currently compete in the tournaments are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is held every two years.^[1] Afghanistan joined SAFF in 2005 and left the association in 2015 to become a founding member of Central Asian Football Association (CAFA).

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship kicked off in Lahore in 1993, evolving out of its forerunner, the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Gold Cup. Since its inception, the biennial competition has developed into South Asia's premier football tournament, promoting the regional development of the game. The SAFF Championship 2001 was first postponed from Oct/Nov 2001 to Jan/Feb 2002 due to the suspension of the Bangladesh Football Federation from FIFA; the tournament finally took place in 2003. The 2018 edition was hosted by Bangladesh.^[2]

The 2021 edition of the tournament was postponed twice to October 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3]

Results

Year	Host	Final			Third place match/Losing semi-finalists
Year	Host	Champion	Score	Runner-up	3rd place	Score	4th place
1993 Details	Pakistan	India	^RR	Sri Lanka	Nepal	^RR	Pakistan
1995 Details	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1–0 (a.s.d.e.t.)	India	Bangladesh and Nepal
1997 Details	Nepal	India	5–1	Maldives	Pakistan	1–0	Sri Lanka
1999 Details	India	India	2–0	Bangladesh	Maldives	2–0	Nepal
2003 Details	Bangladesh	Bangladesh	1–1( a.e.t. ) (5–3 p )	Maldives	India	2–1 (a.s.d.e.t.)	Pakistan
2005 Details	Pakistan	India	2–0	Bangladesh	Maldives and Pakistan
2008 Details	Maldives & Sri Lanka	Maldives	1–0	India	Bhutan and Sri Lanka
2009 Details	Bangladesh	India U23	0–0( a.e.t. ) (3–1 p )	Maldives	Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
2011 Details	India	India	4–0	Afghanistan	Maldives and Nepal
2013 Details	Nepal	Afghanistan	2–0	India	Maldives and Nepal
2015 Details	India	India	2–1 ( a.e.t. )	Afghanistan	Maldives and Sri Lanka
2018 Details	Bangladesh	Maldives	2–1	India	Nepal and Pakistan
2021 Details	Maldives	India	3–0	Nepal	Maldives	^{RR ^{[lower-alpha 1]}}	Bangladesh
2023 Details	India	India	1–1 ( a.e.t. ) (5–4 p )	Kuwait	Bangladesh and Lebanon

Statistics

Performance by nation

Nation	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Semi-finalists
India	9 (1993, 1997, 1999 , 2005, 2009 ^{[lower-alpha 2]}, 2011 , 2015 , 2021 , 2023 )	4 (1995, 2008, 2013, 2018)	1 (2003)	–	–
Maldives	2 ( 2008 , 2018)	3 (1997, 2003, 2009)	1 (1999)	–	4 (2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Bangladesh	1 ( 2003 )	2 (1999, 2005)	1 (1995)	–	3 (1995, 2009 , 2023)
Afghanistan *	1 (2013)	2 (2011, 2015)	–	–	–
Sri Lanka	1 ( 1995 )	1 (1993)	–	1 (1997)	3 ( 2008 , 2009, 2015)
Nepal	–	1 (2021)	1 (1993)	2 (1995, 1999)	3 (2011, 2013 , 2018)
Kuwait ³	–	1 (2023)	–	–	–
Pakistan	–	–	1 (1997)	2 ( 1993 , 2003)	2 ( 2005 , 2018)
Bhutan	–	–	–	–	1 (2008)
Lebanon ³	–	–	–	–	1 (2023)

Bold = Hosts

* = No longer SAFF member

³ = Invited as guest teams from WAFF

Participating nations

Legend

1st – Champions
2nd – Runners-up
3rd – Third place
4th – Fourth place
SF – Semifinals¹
GS – Group stage
DQ – Disqualified/Suspended by FIFA/AFC/SAFF.
Q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
— Hosts
× – Did not enter
× – Withdrew before tournament begins
— Not part of SAFF

Team	1993	1995	1997	1999	2003	2005	2008	2009	2011	2013	2015	2018	2021	2023	Total
Bangladesh	×	SF	GS	2nd	1st	2nd	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	13
Bhutan	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	GS	9
India ²	1st	2nd	1st	1st	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	14
Maldives	×	×	2nd	3rd	2nd	SF	1st	2nd	SF	SF	SF	1st	GS	GS	12
Nepal	3rd	SF	GS	4th	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	SF	2nd	GS	14
Pakistan	4th	GS	3rd	GS	4th	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	SF	DQ	GS	12
Sri Lanka	2nd	1st	4th	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	DQ	13
Former team(s)
Afghanistan ³	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	GS	GS	2nd	1st	2nd	Part of CAFA			7
Guest teams
Kuwait ⁴	×													2nd	1
Lebanon ⁴	×													SF	1

¹The third-place match was not played in 1995 and has not been played 2003 onwards.
²Including India U23 team.
³Left SAFF and joined CAFA in 2015.
⁴Invited as a guest team from the WAFF.

All-time table

As of 4 July 2023^[update].

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	India ¹	14	62	39	15	8	108	38	+70	132
2	Maldives	12	50	25	11	14	98	52	+46	86
3	Bangladesh	13	46	18	12	16	52	47	+5	66
4	Nepal	14	46	14	7	25	51	68	−17	49
5	Sri Lanka	13	41	13	7	21	48	65	−17	46
6	Pakistan	12	39	12	8	19	32	51	−19	44
7	Afghanistan	7	27	12	4	11	48	42	+6	40
8	Kuwait	1	5	3	2	0	9	2	+7	11
9	Lebanon	1	4	3	1	0	7	1	+6	10
10	Bhutan	9	27	1	1	25	15	102	−87	4

¹Including India U23 team.

Top goal scorers by edition

Years	Player(s)	Goals
1993	I. M. Vijayan	3
1995	Mohamed Amanulla	3
1997	I. M. Vijayan	6
1999	Bhaichung Bhutia	3
	Mizanur Rahman Dawn
	Mohamed Wildhan
	Naresh Joshi
2003	Sarfraz Rasool	4
2005	Ali Ashfaq	3
	Ibrahim Fazeel
	Ahmed Thariq
2008	Harez Habib	4
2009	Enamul Haque	4
	Ahmed Thariq
	Channa Ediri Bandanage
2011	Sunil Chhetri	7
2013	Ali Ashfaq	10
2015	Khaibar Amani	4
2018	Manvir Singh	3
2018	Hassan Bashir	3
2021	Sunil Chhetri	5
2023	Sunil Chhetri	5

Overall top goal scorers

As of 27 June 2023, 20:30 IST

Players with 10 or more goals at SAFF Championships
Rank	Player	Goals scored
1	Sunil Chhetri	23
1	Ali Ashfaq	23
3	Bhaichung Bhutia	12
4	Ibrahim Fazeel	10
4	Ahmed Thariq	10

Winning coaches

1. Syed Nayeemuddin

2. Igor Štimac

Both Syed Nayeemuddin and Igor Štimac won the SAFF Championship twice with India national team.

Year	Team	Coach
1993	India	Jiri Pesek
1995	Sri Lanka	Jorge Perreira
1997	India	Syed Nayeemuddin
1999	India	Sukhwinder Singh
2003	Bangladesh	George Kottan
2005	India	Syed Nayeemuddin
2008	Maldives	Jozef Jankech
2009	India U23	Sukhwinder Singh
2011	India	Savio Medeira
2013	Afghanistan	Mohammad Yousef Kargar
2015	India	Stephen Constantine
2018	Maldives	Petar Šegrt
2021	India	Igor Štimac
2023	India	Igor Štimac

Notes

↑ The format of the tournament was changed to round-robin due to the suspension of Pakistan and the withdrawal of Bhutan. Maldives finished third in points and hence listed as third place.^[4]
↑ India was represented by the India U-23 team.

Related Research Articles

The Bhutan national football team represents Bhutan in men's international football. The team is controlled by the governing body for football in Bhutan, the Bhutan Football Federation, which is a member of the Asian Football Federation and the regional body the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The national football team of Bhutan play their home games at the national stadium, Changlimithang.

The Afghanistan national football team is the national football team of Afghanistan and is controlled by the Afghanistan Football Federation. Founded in 1922, they played their first international game against Iran in Kabul, 1941. Afghanistan then joined FIFA in 1948 and the AFC in 1954, as one of the founding members. They play their home games at the Ghazi National Olympic Stadium in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. In 2013, Afghanistan won the 2013 SAFF Championship and earned the "FIFA Fair Play Award". Afghanistan has never qualified for the AFC Asian Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangladesh national football team</span> Mens association football team representing Bangladesh

The Bangladesh national football team is the national recognised football team of Bangladesh and is controlled by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF). It is a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) since 1973 and of FIFA since 1974, even though the Bangladesh Football Federation was first founded in 1972. Bangladesh was elected as a member of the AFC Executive Committee in 1982–1986 and 1998–2002. The current Executive Committee was elected democratically, under an AFC approved constitution and direct supervision of FIFA & AFC, in October 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maldives national football team</span> Mens association football team representing Maldives

The Maldives national football team represents the Maldives in international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Maldives. It is a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The Pakistan national football team represents Pakistan in men's international football in FIFA-authorized events and is controlled by the Pakistan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Pakistan. Pakistan became a member of FIFA in 1948 joining the Asian Football Confederation and its national team debuted in 1950.

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) is an association of the football playing nations in South Asia which is a regional subsidiary of Asian Football Confederation, incorporated in 1997. The members of the association are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Nirmal Chettri is an Indian footballer who plays mainly as a defender and last played for Southern Samity in the Calcutta Football League.

The India national under-17 football team represents India in international football at the under-17 level. Controlled by the All India Football Federation, the governing body for football in India, the team is part of the Asian Football Confederation and the South Asian Football Federation.

The Bangladesh women's national football team is the women's national association football team of Bangladesh controlled by the Bangladesh Football Federation under the supervision of the women's football committee. It is a member of the Asian Football Confederation and has yet to qualify for the World Cup or an AFC Women's Asian Cup finals.

The SAARC Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in South Asia. It is governed by the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA). The first championship tournament began on 12 April 2011 and was hosted in Lahore, Pakistan. Four international teams from South Asia participated, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

The India women's national under-20 football team represents India in international women's under-20 football in the AFC U-19 Women's Championship and the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. It is controlled by the AIFF. They also participated in the 2021–22 Indian Women's League season, as Indian Arrows Women.

The SAFF Women's Championship, also called the South Asian Football Federation Women's Cup, is a competition for women's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). All seven members are eligible to participate in the tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 SAFF Championship</span> Football tournament between SAFF member states

The 2015 SAFF Championship was the 11th edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's football championship of South Asia organized by SAFF. It was held in India from 23 December 2015 to 3 January 2016.

The 2013 SAFF Championship Final was the final match of the 2013 SAFF Championship which took place in Nepal on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, and was officiated by Tayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman of Bangladesh. It was the 10th installment of the tournament since its inception in 1993.

The Bangladesh national under-20 football team represents Bangladesh in international youth football competitions in SAFF U-20 Championship, AFC U-20 Championship and FIFA U-20 World Cup, as well as any other under-20, under-19 & under-18 international football tournaments. The team is operated under the Bangladesh Football Federation.

The Indian women's national under-17 football team represents India in international women's under-17 football. The team is controlled by the governing body for football in India, the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The federation is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).

The 2021 SAFF Championship, known as Ooredoo SAFF Championship 2021 for sponsorship reasons, was the thirteenth edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's football championship of South Asia organised by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). Initially, it was decided to be hosted by Pakistan in 2020, but was postponed to September 2021 in Bangladesh. However, the tournament was postponed again to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Maldives as host.

The 2023 SAFF Championship was the 14th edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's football championship of South Asia organised by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The event was held at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, India from 21 June to 4 July 2023.

The 2022 SAFF Women's Championship was the 6th edition of the SAFF Women's Championship, the international women's football championship contested by the national teams of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The tournament was played from 6–19 September 2022 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

References

↑ "From SAARC Gold Cup to SAFF Championship". Givemegoal.com.np. 3 August 2013. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
↑ "Infos at goalnepal.com". Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
↑ "We Will Try Our Best To Host SAFF 2021 Matches In Pokhara". Goal Nepal. 27 July 2021. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
↑ Mukherjee, Soham (9 September 2021). "SAFF Championship 2021: Everything you need to know". Goal. Archived from the original on 13 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.

External links

کص ننه دشمن مادرشو گاییم

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[5] The format of the tournament was changed to round-robin due to the suspension of Pakistan and the withdrawal of Bhutan. Maldives finished third in points and hence listed as third place.^[4]

[6] India was represented by the India U-23 team.

[1] "From SAARC Gold Cup to SAFF Championship". Givemegoal.com.np. 3 August 2013. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2014.

[2] "Infos at goalnepal.com". Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2016-01-03.

[3] "We Will Try Our Best To Host SAFF 2021 Matches In Pokhara". Goal Nepal. 27 July 2021. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.

[4] Mukherjee, Soham (9 September 2021). "SAFF Championship 2021: Everything you need to know". Goal. Archived from the original on 13 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[lower-alpha 1]

[lower-alpha 2]

[4]

v t e International association football
FIFA Federations Teams Competitions World Cup U-20 U-17 Olympics Youth Olympics Universiade World Rankings The Best FIFA Football Awards Timeline
Africa	CAF – Africa Cup of Nations U-23 U-20 U-17 African Nations Championship Regional (CECAFA, CEMAC, COSAFA, WAFU) Intercontinental (Arab)
Asia	AFC – Asian Cup U-23 U-20 U-17 Regional (ASEAN, Central, East, South, West) Interregional (AFF-EAFF) Intercontinental (Arab)
Europe	UEFA – Euro U-21 U-19 U-17 Nations League Interregional (CONMEBOL–UEFA)
North & Central America and the Caribbean	CONCACAF – Gold Cup U-20 U-17 U-15 Nations League
Oceania	OFC – Nations Cup U-19 U-16/U-17
South America	CONMEBOL – Copa América U-20 U-17 U-15 Interregional (CONMEBOL–UEFA)
Non-FIFA	CONIFA – CONIFA World Football Cup CONIFA European Football Cup CONIFA South America Football Cup CONIFA Africa Football Cup IIGA – Island Games ODEBO – Bolivarian Games ODESUR – South American Games South American Board of New Federations (COSANFF) World Unity Football Alliance (WUFA)
Games	African Games Arab Games Asian Games Central America Games Central America and Caribbean Games East Asian Games Jeux de la Francophonie Goodwill Games Indian Ocean Island Games Islamic Solidarity Games Lusofonia Games Mediterranean Games Micronesian Games Pan American Games Pacific Games Pacific Mini Games South Asian Games Southeast Asian Games West Asian Games
See also Geography Codes Player/Club of the Century Women's football

v t e SAFF Championship
Tournaments	Pakistan 1993 Sri Lanka 1995 Nepal 1997 India 1999 Bangladesh 2003 Pakistan 2005 Maldives/Sri Lanka 2008 Bangladesh 2009 India 2011 Nepal 2013 India 2015 Bangladesh 2018 Maldives 2021 India 2023
Squads	1995 1999 2003 2005 2008 2009 2011 2013 2015 2018 2021 2023
Finals	2011 2013 2015 2018 2021 2023

v t e South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)
International competitions	SAFF Championship South Asian Games Women's Championship SAFF Club Championship
Youth competitions	U-20 Championship U-17 Championship U-18 Women's Championship U-15 Women's Championship
Member associations	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
Football in South Asian countries	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
National teams	Bangladesh M W Bhutan M W India M W Maldives M W Nepal M W Pakistan M W Sri Lanka M W
Domestic leagues	Bangladesh M W Bhutan M India M W Maldives M Nepal M W Pakistan M W Sri Lanka M
SAFF FIFA AFC