After the meeting in the Maldives, South Asian Football Federation has confirmed a new tournament, SAFF Club Championship 2023.
As the name suggests, this is a tournament between champions. All the clubs for their respective domestic league winners from 7 SAARC nations will participate.
The SAFF committee has also finalized that this year’s Men’s SAFF championship will likely be postponed and played in 2023.
SAFF Club Championship 2024 | Tournament Details
SAFF Club Championship will be held from 2024
| Tournament | SAFF Club Championship |
| Year | 2024 |
| Affiliated | South Asian Football Federation |
| Host Nation | Bangladesh |
| Teams | 10 Clubs |
| Tournament Dates | TBA | 2023 |
| Venue | To Be Announced |
| Live Streaming/Telecast | To Be Announced |
Currently, very little information has been released by the SAFF committee, including only information on the host nation and teams that will participate in this tournament Saff Club Championship which will be held in the year 2023.
This will be an exciting experience for football fans as they will now see their favorite clubs competing with SAFF-affiliated nation clubs.
Participating Teams in SAFF Club Championship 2023
A total of 10 clubs from 7 nations will participate in the first edition of the SAFF Club Championship, which will be held in Bangladesh in 2023. Check out the table below for all the clubs:
| Country | League | Teams |
|---|---|---|
| India | Indian Super League Champions & Runners-up | Hyderabad FC Kerala Blasters |
| Maldives | 2021–22 Dhivehi Premier League Champions & Runners-up | Maziya Club Eagles |
| Bangladesh | Bangladesh Premier League Champions & Runners-up | Bashundhara Kings Dhaka Abahani |
| Nepal | Martyr’s Memorial A-Division League Champions | Machhindra FC |
| Pakistan | Pakistan Premier League Champions | WAPDA FC |
| Bhutan | Bhutan Premier League Champions | Paro |
| Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka Super League Champions | Blue Star |
The clubs participating in this tournament are the winners of their respective leagues.
- Hyderabad FC and Kerala Blasters will compete in this tournament as ISL champions and Runner-ups.
- Maziya, the champions of Dhivehi Premier League and the runner-up Club Eagles are the participants in this tournament.
- Bangladesh Premier League winner of 2021/22 Bashundhara Kings and second position Dhaka Abahani from Bangladesh.
- Machhindra FC will represent Nepal as the winner of the last Martyr’s Memorial A-Division League.
- WAPDA FC from Pakistan Premier League will compete in this tournament, and this will be the first after the ban by Fifa on Pakistan football.
- Paro FC from Bhutan Premier League
- And finally, the 10th team will be Blue Star from Sri Lanka Super League.
The good news is Team Pakistan will now participate in all international tournaments, including SAFF Club and Country’s championship. They’ve been banned by FIFA previously.
Live Streaming and Telecast
As this tournament is likely to be held in Bangladesh so we can assume that one of the sports channels from the country is going to show live streaming of the matches from the tournament.
Live Telecast: T Sports, a popular sports telecasting channel in Bangladesh, might telecast it.
Live Streaming: We have seen many of the SAFF tournaments are live streamed on youtube so we can hope this league will be streamed as well.
Also, as stated above, there is no information about Venues, Schedules, even the opening dates, and other details. So this is not official information.
Such tournaments will be crucial to maintain and boost the sportsmen’s spirit for the game and experience. As there is no hiding that the South Asian team’s performance in Asian Championships is less than impressive.
We hope this viewership and players gain new experiences from this tournament.
