Global ban on football cost Sri Lanka SAFF appearance
For the first time in its history, the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship will proceed without Sri Lanka, when the regional competition comes alive for the 14th occasion from June 21 to July 4 in Bangalore, India. The remaining countries of the South Asian region – hosts India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan – will be joined by two guest countries, Kuwait and Lebanon from the Middle East region to complete an eight-team battle for the SAFF Cup.
This will be the first occasion Sri Lanka will forego its appearance since the inception of the competition in 1993. Originally Sri Lanka had expressed its interest to bid for hosting the tournament at the SAFF Executive Committee Meeting held on October 17, 2021 in the Maldives, but following FIFA’s global suspension on January 21 earlier this year, not only they lost the bid to host the event, but also missed the opportunity of taking part for the first time after 13 appearances.
To add more value and boost the spirit of the game, the SAFF decided to invite two nations outside the region, which would be a definite threat to title holders and eight-time champions India. In the list of eight SAFF countries, Sri Lanka will be the third team to forego the competition following the non-appearance of Bhutan in 2021 and Pakistan in 2015. Only two other countries – India and Nepal – have so far appeared in all 13 editions held prior to this year’s version, which will be Sri Lanka’s first time out of the regional tournament.
With the title, India received US$50,000 as prize money at the previous edition held in Maldives in 2021, and they will have a tougher season this time on home soil in defending the title. The first game is scheduled to take place on June 21 between Kuwait and Nepal at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru, the hosting venue of the 14th SAFF.
As the hosting nation Sri Lanka won its only title in 1995, beating India 1-0 during sudden death when the competition was previously named the SAARC Gold Cup. This edition will see the eight teams allocated in two groups as India, Kuwait, Nepal and Pakistan are drawn in Group ‘A’ and Lebanon, Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh form the Group ‘B’. The top two teams of each group will advance to the semi-finals and both winners will play each other in the final on July 4.