Home SAFF Draw Pits Bangladesh Against Sri Lanka, Bhutan

Bangla Press Desk:  The draw for the 15th edition of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship was held in Thimphu, Bhutan, on Saturday, with hosts Bangladesh placed in Group A, while top seeds and defending regional powerhouse India headlined Group B.

Bangladesh will host the Championship for the first time in eight years, facing Sri Lanka and Bhutan in Group A from 4 to 17 November at the National Stadium in Dhaka.

The hosts will aim for a second SAFF title, while India will compete against Pakistan and Maldives in Group B. The seeding was based on the FIFA rankings released on 20 July.

Bangladesh and the highest-ranked India were automatically placed as the top seeds in Groups A and B, respectively, before the remaining teams were allocated through the draw.

The tournament will be played under a league-cum-knockout format. With the current sixteam line-up, the competition will feature nine matches, comprising six group-stage fixtures, two semi-finals and the final.

However, the tournament could expand to seven teams if Nepal's FIFA suspension is lifted before 30 September. if that happens, Nepal will automatically join Group A alongside Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

The inclusion of Nepal would increase the groupstage schedule to nine matches, taking the overall number of fixtures to 12. Bangladesh previously hosted the SAFF Championship in 2003, 2009 and 2018.

The hosts clinched their greatest triumph in the tournament on home soil in 2003, defeating Maldives in the final in Dhaka to lift their only SAFF Championship title.