SAFF Championship

Organising body	SAFF
Founded	1993; 30 years ago (1993) (as SAARC Gold Cup)
Region	South Asia
Number of teams	7  Bangladesh  Bhutan  India  Maldives    Nepal  Pakistan  Sri Lanka
Current champions	India (8th title)
Most successful team(s)	India (8 titles)
Website	saffederation.org
2023 SAFF Championship

The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup and South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup), is the main 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
			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[a]	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  Bangladesh
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 [b]	Bangladesh
2023 Details	India

Statistics

Performance by nation

Nation	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Semi-finalists
India	8 (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009[c], 2011, 2015, 2021)	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)	–	2 (1995, 2009)
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)
Pakistan	–	–	1 (1997)	2 (1993, 2003)	2 (2005, 2018)
Bhutan	–	–	–	–	1 (2008)

Bold = Hosts

* = No longer SAFF member

Participating nations

Legend

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	Q	12
Bhutan	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	Q	8
India	1st	2nd	1st	1st	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	Q	13
Maldives	×	×	2nd	3rd	2nd	SF	1st	2nd	SF	SF	SF	1st	GS	Q	11
Nepal	3rd	SF	GS	4th	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	SF	2nd	Q	13
Pakistan	4th	GS	3rd	GS	4th	SF	GS	GS	GS	GS	×	SF	dq	Q	11
Sri Lanka	2nd	1st	4th	GS	GS	GS	SF	SF	GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	dq	13
Former team(s)
Afghanistan2	Not part of SAFF				GS	GS	GS	GS	2nd	1st	2nd	Not part of SAFF			7

¹The third-place match was not played in 1995 and has not been played 2003 onwards.
²Left SAFF and joined CAFA in 2015.

All-time table

As of 2021^[update].

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	India	13	57	37	12	8	100	36	+64	123
2	Maldives	11	47	24	11	12	95	48	+47	83
3	Bangladesh	12	42	16	12	14	46	42	+4	60
4	Nepal	13	43	13	7	23	49	63	−14	46
5	Sri Lanka	13	41	13	7	21	48	65	−17	46
6	Pakistan	11	36	12	8	16	32	42	−10	44
7	Afghanistan	7	27	12	4	11	48	42	+6	40
8	Bhutan	8	24	1	1	22	13	93	−80	4

Top goalscorers by edition

Years	Player(s)	Goals
1993	I. M. Vijayan	3
1995	Mohamed Amanulla	3
1997	I. M. Vijayan	6
1999	Naresh Joshi	3
	Bhaichung Bhutia
	Mizanur Rahman Dawn
	Mohamed Wildhan
2003	Sarfraz Rasool	4
2005	Ibrahim Fazeel	3
	Ali Ashfaq
	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
2021	Sunil Chhetri	5

Overall top goalscorers

Players with 10 or more goals at SAFF Championships

Rank	Nation	Player	Goals scored
1		Sunil Chhetri	18
2		Ali Ashfaq	13
3		Bhaichung Bhutia	12
4		Ibrahim Fazeel	10
		Ahmed Thariq

Winning coaches

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	Sukhwinder Singh
2011	India	Savio Medeira
2013	Afghanistan	Mohammad Yousef Kargar
2015	India	Stephen Constantine
2018	Maldives	Petar Segrt
2021	India	Igor Štimac