SAFF Preview – Based on Sri Lanka
South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), founded in 1997, is an association of the football-playing nations in South Asia and is affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation.
Its founding members are Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Bhutan joined the federation in 2000.
SAFF Championship, (previously known as South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup and SAFF Gold Cup), is the main international association football competition of the men’s national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF)
The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship kicked off in Lahore in 1993. Since its inception, the biennial competition has developed into South Asia’s premier football tournament, promoting the regional development of the game
The 1993 South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation Gold Cup was the 1st South Asian Football Federation Cup, the countries that competed in this tournament were India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka reached the finals before losing out to eventual winners India, since then India has won 7 times meanwhile Maldives 2 and Bangladesh Afghanistan and Sri Lanka winning once respectively.
The 1995 tournament is a special one for Sri Lanka because were the hosts and they have crowned champions in that tournament by beating India in the Finals. Thanks to Sarath Wellage’s only goal of the match. Since then it has not been very favourable to Sri Lanka.
Mohammed Amanulla and E.B Channa became top goals scorers in 1995 and 2005 editions respectively.
The highest goal scorer of all time is Ali Ashraf with 20 goals.
The 2021 SAFF Championship is the thirteenth edition of the SAFF Championship. Initially, it was decided to be hosted by Pakistan in 2020 but was postponed to September 2021 in Bangladesh. However, the tournament was postponed again to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Maldives as the host
The Sri Lanka team goes into this tournament with high hopes under the leadership of Sujan Perera. Can the Lions bring back the trophy home? That is the big question!!!
