Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
The South Asian Football Federation, at its Ordinary Congress on Saturday, decided to hold the first-ever SAFF Club Championship next year.
‘The championship will start in the middle of next year on a home and away basis. The details of the championship, however, will be given following discussions among the members of the associations,’ SAFF president Kazi Salahuddin told reporters after the congress.
‘I have been working for the last few years for this championship. Once we confirmed the age-group competitions, my dream was to make the club championship happen, and everyone gave their consent in today’s executive committee meeting. So this makes me delighted.’
Sahahuddin, who is also the Bangladesh Football Federation president, took the helm of the regional football body in 2009 and floated the idea of having a UEFA Champions League-like event in the South Asian region for more than a decade.
The idea failed to take shape due to a lack of interest from sponsors until now. But at Saturday’s SAFF Ordinary Congress in Dhaka, the SAFF executive committee decided in principle to hold the championship next year.
When asked about the Bangladesh Olympic Association’s decision to not send the men’s football team to the forthcoming Asian Games in China, Salahuddin said, ‘I don’t know about the decision, and I would have preferred to see the men’s team alongside the women’s at the continent’s biggest multi-sport event.’
In the meeting, they also discussed the upcoming 14th SAFF Championship, which is scheduled to take place in Bengaluru, India, from June 21 to July 4.
The committee decided to wait until May 15, 2023, to find another team for the competition, as agreed in the previous executive meeting to invite teams outside the SAFF region: Bangladesh, hosts India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan. Another SAFF nation, Sri Lanka, are currently facing a FIFA ban.
With the confirmation of the Kuwait team, so far, seven teams have confirmed their participation in the SAFF Championship.
The SAFF ordinary congress elected Ali Umar from the Football Association of the Maldives and Sundar Narsingh Joshi from the All Nepal Football Association as the vice-presidents of the SAFF.
The duo were elected unopposed by the congress for the remaining term of 2022–2026. The position had remained vacant since the last congress on July 2, 2022.
Likewise, AIFF General Secretary Shaji Prabhakaran was elected as the SAFF representative at the AFC Executive Committee for the term of 2023–2027.
