2025 SAFF Championship

2025 SAFF Championship

Tournament details
Host country	India Nepal Bangladesh Sri Lanka Pakistan Maldives Bhutan
Dates	15 June – 25 July
Teams	7 (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)	7 (in 7 host cities)
← 2023 2027 →

The 2025 SAFF Championship will be the 15th edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's football championship of South Asia organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The event will be held in all seven member nations, in a home-away format from 15 June to 25 July 2025.

India, the defending champions, won their record-extending ninth championship by defeating Kuwait in the final in the previous edition.

Host selection

SAFF proposed the new format in a meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal on 8 January 2025. This format encompasses all member nations hosting three matches in the group stage (except for India and Pakistan if drawn together) and each team would play 6 games in the group stage (3 home & 3 away). This shift is inspired by the AFF Cup in the ASEAN region, aiming to enhance fan engagement and provide teams with the advantage of playing on home soil. For the matches between India and Pakistan, a neutral venue will be employed to avoid tension between the nations' political climate. The committee also noted if any "unfavorable situation" were to arise, a centralized venue, pre-decided, would become the emergency host and host the remaining matches. However, if any member nation declines this format, then SAFF will choose a singular host nation and city, going back to their traditional format.

Participating nations

In the previous edition, Lebanon and Kuwait made guest appearances, but so far it seems only the seven SAFF members will compete.

Country	Appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking (6 April 2025)
Bangladesh	13th	Champions (2003)
Bhutan	9th	Semi-finals (2008)
India	14th	Champions (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2021, 2023)
Maldives	12th	Champions (2008, 2018)
Nepal	14th	Runners-up (2021)
Pakistan	12th	Third place (1997)
Sri Lanka	14th	Champions (1995)
TBA		Invitee

Schedule

Group stage		Group A		Group B
		Date	Matches	Date	Matches
	Matchday 1	15 June 2025	2 v 3 1 v 4	16 June 2025	2 v 3 1 v 4
	Matchday 2	18 June 2025	4 v 2 3 v 1	19 June 2025	4 v 2 3 v 1
	Matchday 3	21 June 2025	3 v 4 1 v 2	22 June 2025	3 v 4 1 v 2
Knockout stage	Semi-finals
		Date	Matches	Date	Matches
	First leg	25 June 2025	2nd B v 1st A	26 June 2025	1st B v 2nd A
	Second leg	28 June 2025	1st A v 2nd B	29 June 2025	2nd A v 1st B
	Finals
		Date		Matches
	First leg	2 July 2025		Semi-final Winner 1 v Semi-final Winner 2
	Second leg	5 July 2025		Semi-final Winner 2 v Semi-final Winner 1

Venues

The Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata will host all of India's home matches. The Jinnah Sports Stadium for Pakistan, and Kathmandu's Dasharath Rangasala will be the home for Nepal. The National Football Stadium in the capital Malé for the Maldives. Bashhundhara Kings Arena will host Bangladesh's home fixtures, while the Colombo Racecourse will host Sri Lanka. And finally, the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu will be the home ground for Bhutan. The SAFF have yet to confirm these proposed venues, but they all have hosted previous editions of the tournament.

Kolkata	Islamabad	Kathmandu
Salt Lake Stadium	Jinnah Sports Stadium	Dasharath Rangasala
Capacity: 68,000	Capacity: 48,700	Capacity: 20,000
Thimphu	Kolkata Islamabad Kathmandu Dhaka Malé Colombo Thimphu class=notpageimage| Location of stadiums of the 2025 SAFF Championship.	Malé
Changlimithang Stadium		National Football Stadium
Capacity: 15,000		Capacity: 11,850
Colombo		Dhaka
Colombo Racecourse		Bashundhara Kings Arena
Capacity: 10,000		Capacity: 6,000

Draw

The draw will most likely take place about a month prior to the tournament, similar to the previous edition. The location of the draw has not been disclosed.

The latest updated FIFA rankings will be used for the tournament, 8 teams will be divided into 4 pots, the nations ranked at the top will occupy the respective positions in the group.

Group stage

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	TBD1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	TBD2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	TBD3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	TBD4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source:

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	TBD1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	TBD2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	TBD3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	TBD4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source:

Marketing

The marketing rights for the tournament have been awarded to Sportfive until 2029, with the championship occurring biennially.

Sponsorship

Title Partner	Presenting Partners	Official Sponsors	Official Performance Partner	Commercial partner
				Sportfive

Broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster	Reference
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

The SAFF Championship is typically not broadcast outside of South Asia on any television network, however, sometimes one of the broadcaster's YouTube channel will live stream their network's coverage of the tournament to every region of the world. In the 2023 edition, Bangladesh's T Sports did this.

Controversies

India-Pakistan

While SAFF holds the vision to have this edition of the championship in home and away format, it faces various problems in the form of political and logistical challenges. For instance, India and Pakistan, if drawn in the same group would have to play the game on neutral venue. It still remains to be seen how receptive are the member associations about the change from centralized venues. In case of losing out on support from member associations, SAFF has shown intent to go back to the traditional, centralized venue format.

Format Change

SAFF noted some key reasons for the change in format, emphasizing the ASEAN tournament as their inspiration. One reason was to increase stadium attendances for matches by guaranteeing their be a 'home' team in each fixture (barring an India and Pakistan game). In past editions, matches without the host nation averaged significantly low numbers despite still being played in South Asia. For instance in 2023, matches with the host India averaged an attendance of 17,853 spectators per match. However, the other rest managed merely 291 spectators per match. While the new format appears to mitigate this gulf in quantities, some critics argued that not having one host nation reduces the sense of unity and festivity typically associated with a single-host tournament. They believe that the absence of a centralized host dilutes the tournament's atmosphere, making it less of a grand event for fans to rally behind. Additionally, logistical and financial challenges, such as traveling and costs between countries for teams and supporters, were cited as potential drawbacks.

Lack of Invitees

According to the new format, schedule, and SAFF, it is unclear if guest nations will be invited. Based on the nature of the 3 home and 3 away game round-robin, there needs to be at least 8 nations (2 groups of 4). But, there are only seven SAFF-member nations. The absence of guest nations like Lebanon and Kuwait could significantly diminish the tournament's competitiveness and continental appeal. Guest nations often bring higher FIFA rankings, better skill levels, and more diverse playing styles, which can elevate the overall quality of matches. For a region like South Asia, where teams have historically struggled to succeed beyond their borders, competing against stronger opponents provides invaluable exposure and experience. The India national team has commented on this in their "Vision 2047", a plan regarding football development in India from 2023-2047. It states that an increase in competition will provide invaluable experience to the players and will improve the teams in the region.

See also

• 2024 SAFF Women's Championship
• 2027 AFC Asian Cup
• 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
• 2025 WAFF Championship
• 2024 ASEAN Championship