South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), founded in 1997, is an association of the football playing nations in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

and is part of the larger

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

. The members of the association are

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the A ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

History

The SAFF was founded in 1997, with

the Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the ...

, and

. In 2000, they expanded to 7 members, adding

. In 2005,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

joined too, but later, left in 2015, to join then newly formed

Central Asian Football Association The Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in Central Asia. In June 2014, the association was in principle approved by the Asian Football Confederation and approved at the Extraordinary Congr ...

Presidents

: *Due to health issues in 2016, Ranjith Rodrigo replaced Salahuddin as acting president for two months.

Member associations

Former member

Competitions

The South Asian Football Federation runs several competitions on subcontinental level.

National team

Men's

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

* South Asian Games Men's football tournament * SAFF U-20 Championship *

SAFF U-17 Championship The SAFF U-15/U-16/U-17 Championship is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The first edition was held as ''SAFF U-16 Championship'', where most ...

Women's

SAFF Women's Championship The SAFF Women's Championship, also called the ''South Asian Football Federation Women's Cup'', is the main association football competition of the women's national football teams, governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). All se ...

* South Asian Games Women's football tournament *

SAFF U-18 Women's Championship The SAFF U-18/U-19/U-20 Women's Championship is a biennial international association football tournament for women's national football teams under the age of 18/19/20, governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). All the seven teams o ...

SAFF U-15 Women's Championship The SAFF U-15/U-17 Women's Championship is association football tournament for women's national teams under the age of 15. The tournament is organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). History The tournament began in 2017 and is hosted ...

Club

The South Asian Football Federation announced in April 2011 that they had decided to start a new tournament for association football club sides, the SAFF Club Championship, with the inaugural edition to be held in Bangladesh from 1–15 September of the same year. However the competition was postponed and desires to revive the competition were again announced in July 2013 but the competition has still not started with accusations that India, the prime nation in the competition, are not altogether interested in participating. Sri Lanka was supposed to host first edition in August 2014. That however did not happen. A new possible start was set for December 2016 but later announced that 2017 would see the first edition. This again was changed and announced that 2018 would be the start of the tournament. But the Club Championship was never a reality and only remained as a plan on paper.

Current title holders

Titles by nation

Note: (†) Member from 2005 till 2015

SAFF teams at continental and global tournaments

;Legend * – Champion * – Runner-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *QF – Quarterfinals *R16 – Round of 16 *GS – Group stage *1S – First knockout stage * — Did not qualify * — Qualified but withdrew * — Did not enter / withdrawn / banned / disqualified * * — Hosts For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Senior

Men's

=FIFA World Cup

=AFC Asian Cup

=AFC Challenge Cup

=AFC Solidarity Cup

Women's

=AFC Women's Asian Cup

Junior

Men's U-20

=AFC U-20 Asian Cup

Men's U-17

=FIFA U-17 World Cup

=AFC U-17 Asian Cup

Women's U-20

=AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup

Women's U-17

=FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

=AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup

Rankings

Rankings are calculated by FIFA.

Men's National Teams

* Last updated: 6 October 2022 Leading Men's Team: ImageSize = width:250 height:700 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1997 till:15/03/2023 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1997 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:IND value:blue id:MAD value:white id:BHU value:yellow id:NEP value:red id:AFG value:green PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/1997 till:01/06/2004 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:IND from:01/06/2004 till:01/09/2004 shift:(20,-12) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/09/2004 till:01/11/2004 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IND from:01/11/2004 till:01/12/2004 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/12/2004 till:01/07/2006 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IND from:01/07/2006 till:01/10/2006 shift:(20,-11) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/10/2006 till:01/11/2006 shift:(20,-8) text:"

" color:IND from:01/11/2006 till:01/12/2006 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/12/2006 till:01/03/2007 shift:(20,0) text:"

" color:IND from:01/03/2007 till:01/08/2007 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/08/2007 till:01/08/2009 shift:(20,-12) text:"

" color:IND from:01/08/2009 till:01/09/2009 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/09/2009 till:01/09/2010 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IND from:01/09/2010 till:01/10/2010 shift:(20,-11) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/10/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(20,-8) text:"

" color:IND from:01/07/2011 till:01/08/2012 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:NEP from:01/08/2012 till:01/03/2013 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/03/2013 till:01/02/2014 shift:(20,-11) text:"

" color:AFG from:01/02/2014 till:01/06/2014 shift:(20,-8) text:"

" color:IND from:01/06/2014 till:01/06/2015 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:MAD from:01/06/2015 till:02/07/2015 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IND from:02/07/2015 till:02/06/2016 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:MAD from:02/06/2016 till:end shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IND

Women's National Teams

* Last updated: 9 December 2022 Leading Women's team: ImageSize = width:250 height:400 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/06/2003 till:31/03/2023 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2004 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:India value:blue PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:01/06/2003 till:end shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:India

Individual statistics

Top goalscorer in men's football

, the players with most goals scored in career from South Asia (SAFF) are:

By number of goals

By country

: ''Players in bold are active international players.''

Top goalscorer in women's football

, the players with most goals scored in career from South Asia (SAFF) are:

By number of goals

By country

: ''Players in bold are active international players.''

References

External links

South Asian Football Federation Cup
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

South Asia Football
– SAFF website (archived) {{AFC teams South Asian Football Federation