SAFF Championship 2023 to welcome stronger teams beyond South Asia 

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) on Friday decided to go beyond the South Asian territory to invite stronger nations to the upcoming SAFF Championship in a bid to develop its regional football teams, making the tournament more competitive as well.

The decision was taken at the executive meeting with the presence of all members except the Maldives as the committee decided that the 13th edition of the tournament would start on June 21 in Bengaluru, India.  

"We first approved the venue of Bengaluru, which will host the tournament from June 21, and decided to invite the teams beyond the South Asian region because we wanted to make room for the South Asian teams to play more competitive matches as well as develop our national teams by playing stronger opponents beyond South Asia," General secretary of SAFF Anwarul Haque Helal told The Daily Star after the meeting on Friday.

"We discussed the matter in the sideline meeting of the AFC Congress in Bahrain after India proposed it bringing forward the different regional tournaments that invite teams beyond their region. And everyone agreed to invite the stronger opponents to the SAFF Championship because we see no benefit to hold the championship every two years among South Asian nations. Everyone wanted to make their national teams more competitive by allowing them to play the stronger opponents under the same banner of the SAFF Championship."

Anwarul said that the deadline for the aspiring nations to fill in their entries is till April 20 and the draw for the championship is set to be held on May 6.
"The SAFF Championship is usually held with the participation of seven nations and we have kept the cutout line of sending the entries on April 20. If Sri Lanka, who has been suspended by FIFA now, doesn't participate, then we will invite two teams to make it an eight-team competition," Helal said.