SAFF soccer draws today!

Maldives will host the draw ceremony of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship today (Thursday) at Male.

The ceremony and the SAFF executive committee meeting will be attended by president Ganesh Thapa (Nepal) and secretary Sirajul Islam Bachchu besides secretaries of eight participating nations, Manzoor Hassain (Bangladesh), A. H. Abdul Ghafoor (Maldives), Lt Col (R) Ahmad Yar Khan Lodhi (Pakistan), Albert Colaco (India), Ugyen Wanchuk (Bhuthan), Mukhtar Rustami (Afghanistan), Narendra Shrestha (Nepal) and Hafiz Marikar (Sri Lanka).

The national teams of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan will be in fray in the biennial soccer fiesta which is expected to explode into action in late May. The first SAFF Championship was staged in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1997 and won by India. The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal hosted SAARC Gold Cup in 1993 at Lahore and in 1995 at Colombo.

The SAFF Championship went to Goa (1999), Dhaka (2003), Karachi (2005) and 2008 marked the first time that the SAFF’s showpiece event will be co-hosted by two nations - Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Pakistan will go in pursuit of their third soccer gold at Colombo’s Sugathadasa Stadium which will host the final of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship in June.

Pakistan have never won the SAFF title and their only medal was a bronze in Kathmandu 1997’s edition. Maldives is a country in the South Asian region that has taken great strides in promoting football. However, they are not capable of hosting all the matches and Sri Lanka, as a support, decided to jointly conduct this 15-match tourney.

The teams will be divided into two groups, with both nations hosting one semi-final each. The group matches that involve Maldives will be played in National Stadium, Male, and group matches involving Sri Lanka will be held in Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo.