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	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 Member	Sri Lanka Football Premier League
Bhutan	2000	Bhutan Football Federation	Expansion 1	Bhutan National League

Former members

Country	Year	Association
Afghanistan	2005–2015	Afghanistan 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]
Ganesh Thapa	2001 - October 2009 ^[4]
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	+/−
22	137	India	217
28	154	Maldives	165	4
36	176	Bhutan	103	3
38	181	Nepal	90	5
39	183	Bangladesh	84	5
44	195	Sri Lanka	44	1
45	197	Pakistan	39

Last updated: 24 November 2016^[8]
Next update: 22 December 2016

Leading Men's Team:

Women's National Teams

AFC	FIFA	Country	Points	+/−
13	57	India	1412	1
24	111	Nepal	1120	1
25	120	Bangladesh	987	1
26	121	Sri Lanka	978	1
28	123	Maldives	948	1
31	—^[9]	Pakistan	926	3
37	—^[9]	Bhutan	778	1

Last updated: 24 June 2016^[10]
Next update: 26 August 2016

Leading Women's 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
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 2]}	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 and 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	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
Year	Host	Champion	Score	Second Place	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
2011 Details	Nepal	Pakistan	2 – 1	India	Nepal	2 – 1	Bangladesh
2013 Details	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]
Year	Host		Champion	Score	Runner-up		Losing semi-finalists ^[2]
2015 Details	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
Year	Host	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Losing semi-finalists
2010^[11]^[12] Details	Bangladesh	India	1 – 0	Nepal	Bangladesh, Pakistan
2012 Details	Sri Lanka	India	3 – 1	Nepal	Afghanistan, Sri Lanka,
2014 Details	Pakistan^[13]	India	6 – 0	Nepal	Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
2016 Details	India

References

↑ Footballinternational.co.uk > Asian Zone > Central South Asian Zone > South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)
↑ "Afghanistan to play SAFF Championship for the last time in 2015". 26 February 2014.
↑ http://www.indianfootball.de/news/m199903.html
↑ "Ganesh Thapa no longer SAFF president". República Sports. Nepal Republic Media. 4 October 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
↑ http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-108196
↑ http://dailysports.lk/rodrigo-replaces-salahuddin-as-acting-president-of-saff/
↑ http://www.bff.com.bd/bff/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1923:salahuddin-re-elected-as-saff-president&catid=34:latest-news&Itemid=74
↑ "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking (Men)". FIFA. 24 November 2016.
1 2 Inactive for more than 18 months and therefore not ranked
↑ "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking (Women)". FIFA. 28 March 2016.
↑ "SAFF: India clinch the title". indiablooms.com. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
↑ "Indian women football team flay Pakistan in SAFF semis". sunday-guardian.com. 20 December 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
↑ http://www.goalnepal.com/news.php?id=15999

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

SAFF U-19 Championship

Tournaments	Nepal 2015

SAFF U-16 Championship

Tournaments	Nepal 2011 Nepal 2013 Bangladesh 2015

South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)

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

National football teams of Asia (AFC)

Southeast Asia (AFF)	Australia Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Vietnam

Central Asia (CAFA)	Afghanistan Iran Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

East Asia (EAFF)	China PR Chinese Taipei Guam Hong Kong Japan Korea DPR Korea Republic Macau Mongolia Northern Mariana Islands¹

South Asia (SAFF)	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

West Asia (WAFF)	Bahrain Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria United Arab Emirates Yemen

Defunct	Malaya North Vietnam South Vietnam South Yemen

Former	Israel (moved to UEFA in 1994) Kazakhstan (moved to UEFA in 2002) New Zealand (formed the OFC in 1966)

¹ Provisional Associate Member - Not a member of FIFA

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