The 13th edition of SAFF Championships will be played at Maldives from 1st to 13th October. Earlier in 2008, Maldives jointly hosted the tournament with Sri Lanka.
Indian men’s national team coach Igor Stimac has named a list of 23 players for the championships. The players and the support staff will assemble in Bengaluru on Monday (27 September), and will fly out to the Maldives the next day. Stimac and the other members of the technical staff will join the squad directly in Maldives on the same day.
Team:
GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kaith.
DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Seriton Fernandes, Chinglensana Singh, Rahul Bheke, Subhasish Bose, Mandar Rao Dessai.
MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Lalengmawia, Anirudh Thapa, Sahal Abdul Samad, Jeakson Singh, Glan Martins, Suresh Singh, Liston Colaco, Yasir Mohammad.
FORWARDS: Manvir Singh, Rahim Ali, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary.
Blue Tigers has won the tournament seven times (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015) and were runners up on four occasions (1995, 2008, 2013, 2018). Maldives have won twice (2008, 2018) and runners up thrice (1997, 2003, 2009). Bangladesh has won once in 2003 and was runners up twice in 1999 and 2005. Afghanistan also has won once in 2013 and was runners up twice in 2011 and 2015. Sri Lanka has won once in 1995 and was runners up in 1993.
Pakistan was supposed to be the host of 13th edition of SAFF Championships, after the restoration of Pakistan Football Federation’s membership by FIFA and since then it would be country’s first international football tournaments. However, later on it was decided to be hosted by Bangladesh. Due to Covid Pandemic, Bangladesh withdraw from hosting and Nepal was offered to host the tournament. Meanwhile, the Football Association of Maldives submitted their bid to host the tournament and they were declared the host originally which was supposed to be played at Pakistan in 2020.
With the withdrawal of Pakistan and Bhutan, the tournament now will be played among five nations in round robin format with the top two teams will qualify for the finals.
India’s Fixture
3 Oct | India v Bangladesh
6 Oct | India v Sri Lanka
8 Oct | India v Nepal
11 Oct | India v Maldives
Top 2 will play in final on 13 October
