SAFF Championship


The South Asian Football Federation Championship or SAFF Championship, officially called SAFF Suzuki Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation. Previous names have included the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup in 1993 and South Asian Gold Cup in 1995. Seven teams currently compete in the South Asian Football Federation Tournament.

History

The countries that currently compete in the tournaments are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is held every two years. Afghanistan joined SAFF in 2005 and left the association in 2015 to become a founding member of Central Asian Football Federation.
The South Asian Football Federation Championship kicked off in Lahore in 1993, evolving out of its forerunner, the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup. Since its inception, the biennial competition has developed into South Asia’s premier football tournament, promoting the regional development of the game. The SAFF Championship 2001 was first postponed from Oct/Nov 2001 to Jan/Feb 2002 due to the suspension of the Bangladeshi FA from FIFA; the tournament finally took place in 2003. The 2018 edition was hosted by Bangladesh.
The 2020 edition of the SAFF Championship will be hosted by Bangladesh.

Tournament summary

1Final tournaments in league table format.
2No third place match has been played since 2005; losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Statistics

Performance by nation

NationChampionsRunners-upThird-placeFourth-placeSemi-finalists
7 4 1
2 3 1 4
1 2 1 2
1 2
1 1 1 3
1 2 3
1 2 2
1

Participating nations

;Legend
;Notes

All-time table

RankTeamPartPldWDLGFGADifPts
11250321089234+58106
210432211109144+4777
311381510134338+555
41237136184660−1445
51136128163242−1044
6727124114842+640
71238116214456−1239
882411221393−804

Top goalscorers

Top goalscorers by edition

Overall top goalscorers