SAFF Championship

SAFF Championship
	The SAFF Championship trophy
Organising body	SAFF
Founded	1993; 32 years ago (as SAARC Gold Cup)
Region	South Asia
Number of teams	7 Bangladesh; Bhutan; India; Maldives; Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka;
Current champions	India (2023)
Most successful team(s)	India (9 titles)
Website	saffederation.org
	2026 SAFF Championship

The SAFF Championship (erstwhile SAARC Gold Cup and SAFF Gold Cup), is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), determining the sub-continental champion of South Asia.

History

India is most successful team of this region. They won the title 9 times which is 7 times more than second most successful team Maldives (having won 2 times). Total 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]

Organisation

Sports marketing, media, and event management firm, Sportfive (formerly Lagardère Sports) has been involved in the tournament since 2025.^[4]

Title sponsorship

Period	Sponsor	Name
1993	No title sponsor	SAARC Gold Cup
1995	Ceylon Tobacco Company	Bristol SAARC Gold Cup
1997	No title sponsor	SAFF Gold Cup
1999	Coca-Cola	SAFF Coca-Cola Cup
2003–2005	No title sponsor	SAFF Gold Cup
2008	No title sponsor	SAFF Championship
2009	BEXIMCO	Bangabandhu SAFF Championship
2011	Karbonn	Karbonn SAFF Championship
2013	No title sponsor	SAFF Championship
2015–2018	Suzuki	SAFF Suzuki Cup
2021	Ooredoo	Ooredoo SAFF Championship
2023	Bashundhara Group	Bangabandhu SAFF Championship
Source: GSA

Results

Ed.	Year	Hosts	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place	No. of teams
Ed.	Year	Hosts	Final			Third place playoff			No. of teams
1	1993	Pakistan	India	^RR	Sri Lanka	Nepal	^RR	Pakistan	4
2	1995	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1–0 (a.s.d.e.t.)	India	Bangladesh and Nepal			5
3	1997	Nepal	India	5–1	Maldives	Pakistan	1–0	Sri Lanka	6
4	1999	India	India	2–0	Bangladesh	Maldives	2–0	Nepal	6
5	2003	Bangladesh	Bangladesh	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–3 p)	Maldives	India	2–1 (a.s.d.e.t.)	Pakistan	8
6	2005	Pakistan	India	2–0	Bangladesh	Maldives and Pakistan			8
7	2008	Maldives Sri Lanka	Maldives	1–0	India	Bhutan and Sri Lanka			8
8	2009	Bangladesh	India U23	0–0 (a.e.t.) (3–1 p)	Maldives	Bangladesh and Sri Lanka			8
9	2011	India	India	4–0	Afghanistan	Maldives and Nepal			8
10	2013	Nepal	Afghanistan	2–0	India	Maldives and Nepal			8
11	2015	India	India	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Afghanistan	Maldives and Sri Lanka			7
12	2018	Bangladesh	Maldives	2–1	India	Nepal and Pakistan			7
13	2021	Maldives	India	3–0	Nepal	Maldives	^{RR^[a]}	Bangladesh	5
14	2023	India	India	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Kuwait	Bangladesh and Lebanon			8
15	2026

Statistics

Performance by nation

Nation	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Semi-finalists
India	9 (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009,^[b] 2011, 2015, 2021, 2023)	4 (1995, 2008, 2013, 2018)	1 (2003)	–	–
Maldives	2 (2008, 2018)	3 (1997, 2003, 2009)	2 (1999, 2021)	–	4 (2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Bangladesh	1 (2003)	2 (1999, 2005)	1 (1995)	1 (2021)	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)
Kuwait³	–	1 (2023)	–	–	–
Pakistan	–	–	1 (1997)	2 (1993, 2003)	2 (2005, 2018)
Bhutan	–	–	–	–	1 (2008)
Lebanon³	–	–	–	–	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	2025	Total
Bangladesh	×	SF	GS	2nd	1st	2nd	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	Q	13
Bhutan	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	GS	Q	9
India²	1st	2nd	1st	1st	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	Q	14
Maldives	×	×	2nd	3rd	2nd	SF	1st	2nd	SF	SF	SF	1st	GS	GS	Q	12
Nepal	3rd	SF	GS	4th	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	SF	2nd	GS	Q	14
Pakistan	4th	GS	3rd	GS	4th	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	SF	DQ	GS	Q	12
Sri Lanka	2nd	1st	4th	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	DQ	Q	13
Former team(s)
Afghanistan³	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	GS	GS	2nd	1st	2nd	Part of CAFA				7
Guest teams
Kuwait⁴	×													2nd	×	1
Lebanon⁴	×													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.

Afghanistan's Hamid Karimi holding the SAFF trophy after winning the 2013 SAFF Championship.

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	India¹	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

Ali Ashfaq of Maldives scored the most number of goals in a single championship, 10 goals at the 2013 Championship.

Years	Player(s)	Goals
1993	Inivalappil Mani Vijayan	3
1995	Mohamed Amanulla	3
1997	Inivalappil Mani 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

Sunil Chhetri at the 2011 SAFF Championship.

As of 27 June 2023

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 the India national team.

Year	Team	Coach
1993	India	Jiří Pešek
1995	Sri Lanka	Jorge Perreira
1997	India	Syed Nayeemuddin
1999	India	Sukhwinder Singh
2003	Bangladesh	George Kottan
2005	India	Syed Nayeemuddin (2)
2008	Maldives	Jozef Jankech
2009	India U23	Sukhwinder Singh (2)
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 (2)

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.^[5]
^ India was represented by the India U-23 team.

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.
^ "SAFF Ex.Co meeting approves home or away format for SAFF Championship 2025". saffederation.org. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
^ 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

[6] 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.^[5]

[7] 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.

[:1-4] "SAFF Ex.Co meeting approves home or away format for SAFF Championship 2025". saffederation.org. Retrieved 2025-01-08.

[5] 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.

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