SAFF Championship

SAFF Suzuki Cup

2013 SAFF Championship logo
Founded	1993 (1993) as SAARC Gold Cup
Region	SAFF
Number of teams	7  Bangladesh  Bhutan  India  Maldives    Nepal  Pakistan  Sri Lanka
Current champions	Maldives (2nd title)
Most successful team(s)	India (7 titles)
Website	www.saffsuzukicup.org
2018 SAFF Championship

The South Asian Football Federation Championship or SAFF Championship, officially called SAFF Suzuki Cup for sponsorship reasons (previously known as South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup and SAFF 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 in 1995.Seven teams compete in the South Asian Football Federation 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 Federation (CAFF).

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship kicked off in Kathmandu in 1997, 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 Bangladeshi FA from FIFA; the tournament finally took place in 2003. The 2018 edition will be hosted by Bangladesh.^[2]

Tournament summary

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
		Champion	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1993 Details	Pakistan	India	[note]	Sri Lanka	Nepal	[note]	Pakistan
1995 Details	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	1–0	India	Bangladesh	[note]	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

Year	Host	Final			Losing semi-finalists [2]
		Champion	Score	Runner-up
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
2018 Details	Bangladesh	Maldives	2–1	India	Nepal and  Pakistan
2020 Details	Pakistan

¹Final tournaments in league table format.

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

Statistics

Performance by nation

Nation	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Semi-finalists
India	7 (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009 [note 1], 2011, 2015)	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 (1993)	2 (1995, 1999)	3 (2011, 2013, 2018)
Pakistan	–	–	1 (1997)	2 (1993, 2003)	2 (2005, 2018)
Bhutan	–	–	–	–	1 (2008)

All-time table

As of 2015.

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts
1	India	12	50	32	10	8	92	34	+58	106
2	Maldives	10	43	22	11	10	91	44	+47	77
3	Afghanistan	7	27	12	4	11	48	42	+6	40
4	Bangladesh	11	38	15	10	13	43	38	+5	55
5	Sri Lanka	12	37	13	6	18	46	60	−14	45
6	Pakistan	11	36	12	8	16	32	42	−10	44
7	Nepal	12	38	11	6	21	44	56	−12	39
8	Bhutan	8	24	1	1	22	13	93	−80	4

Top goalscorers

Top goalscorers by edition Year Player(s) Goals 1993 Unknown NA 1995 Mohamed Amanulla 3 1997 I. M. Vijayan 6 1999 Naresh Joshi 3 Bhaichung 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 2018 Manvir Singh 3 Overall top goalscorers Players with 10 or more goals at SAFF Championships Rank Nation Player Goals scored 1 Ali Ashfaq 20 2 Sunil Chhetri 13 3 Bhaichung Bhutia 12 4 I. M. Vijayan 10 Ibrahim Fazeel Ahmed Thariq

See also

• Football at the South Asian Games
• ASEAN Football Championship
• East Asian Football Championship
• Arabian Gulf Cup
• West Asian Football Federation Championship
• Arab Nations Cup

Notes

1. ↑ The 2009 tournament was won by India national U-23 team.

References

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

External links

• Official website
• RSSSF page on the South Asian Federation Cup
• South Asia Football–Complete SAFF website