SAFF Championship moving on from centralised venue?
The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) secretariat is mulling whether they should move on from a centralised venue for the SAFF Championship, floating the idea of organising a month-long tournament across multiple venues.
The proposed format was discussed during yesterday's SAFF electoral congress, where Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin retained the SAFF presidency for a fourth consecutive term.
Under the new format, each of the seven participants will play one game against each team, three at home and three away from home. The team with the most points will be crowned champions.
In the past, the biennial tournament was organised in a tournament format with one or two countries playing host.
A marketing agent proposed the change to the SAFF secretariat to consider multiple venues for the SAFF Championship and the SAFF Club Championship, although the later has never been staged.
"We are thinking of holding the SAFF Championship and SAFF Club Championship in alternate years. That is our plan for the future. A marketing company proposed multiple venue for both. We will now send the proposal to the member countries. They will study it and provide feedback. If everyone agrees with this proposal, we will go that way," SAFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal said, adding that there would be seven matchdays between June and July, with each matchday featuring three games.
Helal also recognised that countries like India and Pakistan may run into problems regarding visas under the format. In such cases, the marketing agency was considering neutral venues.
There were only three candidates -- from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan -- vying for posts in the seven-member SAFF committee during the electoral congress. Two vice presidents posts and two members posts remain vacant. Pakistan did not contest the elections due to a ban from FIFA while Maldives did not send a representative.
"I am grateful and thankful to all that I became SAFF president fourth time," Salahuddin said. "I have been successful in last few years if you talk about SAFF, which had only one tournament [prior to his first term as president]. Now, we have six tournaments a year. I think that says how successful I have been."