South Asian Football Federation

South Asian Football Federation

SAFF Logo

SAFF members
Motto Strength in Unity
Formation 1997
Type Sports organization
Membership
7 member associations
President
Bangladesh Kazi Salahuddin
Parent organization
AFC
Website southasiafootball.com

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), founded in 1997, is an association of the football playing nations in South Asia and is part of the larger Asian Football Confederation. Its founding members are Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Bhutan joined the federation in 2000 and Afghanistan in 2005.[1] In February 2015, captain Haroon Amiri announced that Afghanistan had officially left the SAFF for the new Central Asian Football Association.[2]

The current champion of SAFF is India which they won over Afghanistan 2-1 in SAFF championship 2015-16.

Member associations

Country Year Association Member League
 Bangladesh 1997 Bangladesh Football Federation Founding Member Bangladesh Premier League
 India 1997 All India Football Federation Founding Member I-League
 Maldives 1997 Football Association of Maldives Founding Member Dhivehi Premier League
   Nepal 1997 All Nepal Football Association Founding Member Nepal National League
 Pakistan 1997 Pakistan Football Federation Founding Member Pakistan Premier League
 Sri Lanka 1997 Football Federation of Sri Lanka Founding MemberSri Lanka Football Premier League
 Bhutan 2000 Bhutan Football Federation Expansion 1Bhutan National League

Former members

Country Year Association
 Afghanistan
2005–2015Afghanistan Football Federation

Afghanistan, who had joined the South Asian Football Federation(SAFF) in the 2005 expansion 2 phase, left the association in 2015 to become a founding member of Central Asian Football Federation(CAFF).

Presidents

President Years
P.P. Lakshmanan [3]
Nepal Ganesh Thapa 2001 - October 2009 [4]
Bangladesh Kazi Salahuddin October 2009 – present[5]

Because of health issues in 2016 Rodrigo Ranjith replaced Salahuddin as acting president for two months.[6] Salahuddin was voted to resume presidency in March 2016.[7]

Ranking

Rankings are calculated by FIFA.

Men's National Teams

AFC FIFA Country Points +/
27 160  Maldives 165 Decrease2
29 162  India 151 Decrease2
35 177  Bangladesh 87 Steady0
36 179    Nepal 80 Increase6
41 186  Bhutan 64 Increase7
42 187  Sri Lanka 62 Increase2
43 190  Pakistan 54 Decrease3
  • Last updated 7 April 2016.[8]
  • Next updated 5 May 2016

Leading Men's Team:

Maldives national football team India national football team India national football team Afghanistan national football team Nepal national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team Maldives national football team India national football team

Women's National Teams

AFC FIFA Country Points +/
13 58  India 1412 Decrease1
25 112    Nepal 1120 Increase2
26 121  Bangladesh 987 Increase2
27 122  Sri Lanka 978 Increase2
29 124  Maldives 948 Increase5
30 127  Pakistan 926 Increase3
32 134  Bhutan 778 Increase3
  • Last updated 28 March 2016.[9]
  • Next updated 24 June 2016

Leading Women's team:

India women's national football team

SAFF Championship

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) organizes the SAFF Championship, also called the South Asian Football Federation Cup (previously South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup), a regional football competition of South Asian countries. It is held every two years. Previous names have included the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup in 1993 and South Asian Gold Cup 95 in 1995.

Year Host Final Third Place Match
Champion Score Runner-up 3rd Place Score 4th Place
1993
Details
Pakistan
Pakistan

India
[note 1]
Sri Lanka

Nepal
[note 1]
Pakistan
1995
Details
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka
1 – 0
India

Bangladesh
[note 2]
Nepal
1997
Details
Nepal
Nepal

India
5 – 1
Maldives

Pakistan
1 – 0
Sri Lanka
1999
Details
India
India

India
2 – 0
Bangladesh

Maldives
2 – 0
Nepal
2003
Details
Bangladesh
Bangladesh

Bangladesh
1 – 1
(5 – 3 pen.)

Maldives

India
2 – 1
Pakistan

Since the 2005 edition, there was no official third place match. Hence, there were no official third place and fourth place being awarded. Semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Year Host Final Losing semi-finalists [2]
Champion Score Runner-up
2005
Details
Pakistan
Pakistan

India
2 – 0
Bangladesh
 Maldives and  Pakistan
2008
Details
Maldives Sri Lanka
Maldives and Sri Lanka

Maldives
1 – 0
India
 Bhutan and  Sri Lanka
2009
Details
Bangladesh
Bangladesh

India
0 – 0
(3 – 1 pen.)

Maldives
 Bangladesh and  Sri Lanka
2011
Details
India
India

India
4 – 0
Afghanistan
 Maldives and    Nepal
2013
Details
Nepal
Nepal

Afghanistan
2 – 0
India
 Maldives and    Nepal
2015
Details
India
India

India
2 – 1
Afghanistan
 Maldives and  Sri Lanka
1Final tournaments in league table format.
2No third place match has been played since 2005; losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

SAFF U-16 Championship

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) also organizes the SAFF U-16 Championship an international youth football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).

Year Host Final Third Place Match
Champion Score Second Place Third Place Score Fourth Place
2011
Details
Nepal
Nepal
Pakistan  2 1  India Nepal    2 1  Bangladesh
2013
Details
Nepal
Nepal
India  1 0 Nepal     Bangladesh 1 0  Afghanistan

Since the 2015 edition, there was no official third place match. Hence, there were no official third place and fourth place being awarded. Semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Year Host Final Losing semi-finalists [2]
Champion Score Runner-up
2015
Details
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh  1 – 1
(4 – 2 pen.)
 India  Afghanistan and    Nepal

SAFF Women's Championship

The federation also organizes the SAFF Women's Championship an international women's football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).

Year Host Final Losing semi-finalists
Champion Score Runner-up
2010[10][11]
Details
Bangladesh
India
1 – 0
Nepal
 Bangladesh,  Pakistan
2012
Details
Sri Lanka
India
3 – 1
Nepal
 Afghanistan,  Sri Lanka,
2014
Details
Pakistan[12]
India
6 – 0
Nepal
 Bangladesh,  Sri Lanka,
2016
Details
India

See also

References

External links

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