Football: Sri Lanka Women team target final slot at SAFF Championship

With the hope of reaching the final stage of the upcoming SAFF Woman’s Championship, the members of Sri Lanka Women’s National Football Team have dedicated their time and effort for training. 

The SAFF Championship is scheduled to be held from March 12 to 22 and will be hosted by Nepal. 

This is the fifth edition of the championship in which Sri Lanka will compete along with Maldives and India under Group 'B'. 

Under this group, Sri Lanka will kick off their campaign against the Maldives on March 15 before facing India on March 17. 

The semi-finals are scheduled to be held on March 20, whereas the final is planned for March 22. 

In the years of 2012 and 2014, the Sri Lankan team was able to qualify for the semi-final stage but in the 4th SAFF Women’s Championship in 2016 the team lost their place to the Maldives. 

“With the support of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka, this year we target to win the semis and hope to reach the finals. Our team conducted their residential training for one month and they toured to Bahrain for three friendly matches against the Bahrain National Team in December in last year. Under the coaching of Thilak Alponso, our players are putting their best efforts into training with the sole ambition of performing well at the SAFF Championship, even with the hardships of finding a proper ground for training,” Sunil Senaweera, the manager of national teams stated. 

Governed by the South Asian Football Federation, the SAFF Women’s Championship is considered as one of the top football competitions for the women’s national football teams of the membership and it is held every two years. 

In 2010, the first edition of the SAFF Women’s Championship was held from December 12 to 23 in Bangladesh and after the departure of the Afghanistan team from the competition, the current members playing for the competition include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

Since the first edition of the championship in 2010, India took the trophy home consecutively beating Nepal three times and Bangladesh once in the final.