SAFF Championship

SAFF Championship

Founded	1993
Region	SAFF
Number of teams	7 Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
Current champions	India (7th title)
Most successful team(s)	India (7 titles)
Website	www.saffsuzukicup.com
2017 SAFF Championship

The SAFF Championship, also called South Asian Football Federation Cup (previously South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup), is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation. Previous names have included the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup in 1993 and South Asian Gold Cup 95 in 1995. Eight teams compete in the South Asian Football Federation Tournament.

History

The countries that 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 in 2015.

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship kicked off in Kathmandu in 1997, evolving out of its forerunner, the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (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 Bangladeshi FA from FIFA; the tournament finally took place in 2003. The 2017 edition will be hosted by Bangladesh.^[2]

Tournaments' summary

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
Year	Host	Champion	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1993 Details	Pakistan	India	^{[note 1]}	Sri Lanka	Nepal	^{[note 1]}	Pakistan
1995 Details	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1 – 0	India	Bangladesh	^{[note 1]}	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 (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]
Year	Host	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Losing semi-finalists ^[2]
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	0 – 0 (3 – 1 pen.)	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
2017 Details	Bangladesh

¹Final tournaments in league table format.

²No third place match has been played since 2005; losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Performance by team

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Semi-finalists
India	7 (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015)	3 (1995, 2008, 2013)	1 (2003)	–	–
Maldives	1 (2008)	3 (1997, 2003, 2009)	1 (1999)	–	4 (2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Bangladesh	1 (2003)	2 (1999, 2005)		–	2 (1995, 2009)
Afghanistan	1 (2013)	2 (2011, 2015)	–	–	–
Sri Lanka	1 (1995)	1 (1993)	–	1 (1997)	2 (2008, 2009, 2015)
Pakistan	–	–	1 (1997)	2 (1993, 2003)	1 (2005)
Nepal	–	–		2 (1995, 1999)	3 (1993, 2011, 2013)
Bhutan	–	–	–	–	1 (2008)

Top goalscorers

Top goalscorers by edition

Year	Player(s)	Goals
1993	Unknown	NA
1995	Unknown	NA
1997	I. M. Vijayan	6
1999	Naresh Joshi	3
	Baichung Bhutia
	Mihazur Rehman
	Mohamed Wildhan
2003	Sarfraz Rasool	4
2005	Ibrahim Fazeel	3
	Ali Ashfaq
	Ahmed Thariq
2008	Harez Habib	4
2009	Enamul Haque	4
	Ahmed Thariq
	E. B. Channa
2011	Sunil Chhetri	7
2013	Ali Ashfaq	10
2015	Khaibar Amani	4

Overall top goalscorers

Players with 10 or more goals at SAFF Championships
Rank	Player	Goals scored
1	Ali Ashfaq	20
2	Sunil Chhetri	13
3	Baichung Bhutia	12
4	I. M. Vijayan	10
	Ibrahim Fazeel
	Ahmed Thariq

References

↑ "From SAARC Gold Cup to SAFF Championship". Givemegoal.com.np. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
↑ Infos at goalnepal.com

External links

SAFF Championship

Men's 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 2017

Women's Tournaments	Bangladesh 2010 Sri Lanka 2012 Pakistan 2014 India 2016

Men's squads	2011 2013 2015

Men's finals	2011 2013 2015

South Asian Football Federation

International Competitions	SAFF Championship South Asian Games U-19 Championship U-16 Championship Club Championship (proposed) Women's Championship

National Teams	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

Domestic Leagues	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

Former National Team(s)	Afghanistan (left the federation after 2015 SAFF Championship)

Football in South Asia

Football in South Asian counties	Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

National teams	Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

International competitions	SAFF Championship South Asian Games SAFF Women's Championship

SAFF FIFA AFC

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