SRI LANKA, MALDIVES MAY JOINTLY HOST SAFF CUP IN FEB 2022

Aproposal has been made for Sri Lanka and Maldives to jointly host the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship 2021. This championship is scheduled to be held in Bangladesh from September 15 to 25.

However, since it is unlikely to be held in Dhaka which is affected by a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic, a meeting of the SAFF countries held via zoom technology on July 1 are making contingency plans.

The SAFF executive committee will take a decision within the next two weeks whether to postpone or conduct the tournament as scheduled, Football Sri Lanka (FSL) president Jaswar Umar told the ‘Daily Mirror’.

The tournament is likely to be postponed to February if Bangladesh is unable to host it, with Sri Lanka and Maldives likely to co-host it.

In 2008 the SAFF was jointly hosted by Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Bhutan has officially informed that it is unable to participate if the tournament is held as scheduled this year. This decision has been taken because of the worsening health situation in the country.

SAFF comprises eight countries, but the tournament will be reduced to a five-team competition if Bhutan does not participate, since Afghanistan withdrew from SAFF six years ago. Pakistan has been suspended by FIFA and will be unable to participate in the SAFF Championships.

India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh are the five countries who are set to participate.

In 1995 Sri Lanka won the SAARC Gold Cup which had the participation of five countries.