SAFF Thread

It's certainly positive news coming out of the region. No doubt if it gets off the ground, their will be arguments about who is the host etc.

It's amazing that a new president has turned aroudn the whole SAFF setup in such little time. Shame on his predecesor.

Hopefully, come February there will be a positive announcement and a schedule to follow, but i guess for it to work, all nations have to support it. Thats the hard part, the ASEAN football federation can tell you that!!

Hopefully we will here more of this and it won't just go to ground.

 

So from my reckoning, Nepal up 10, Bangladesh up 7, big improvements. Goes to show what can happen when teams get a few games played together.

India have moved up one slot, there on the fringes of the bigger teams now, i'm sure there goal is to break into the top 16

Bangladesh now leapfrogged Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Nepal overtaken Pakistan.

 

Bangladesk League Update

DHAKA: Defending champions Dhaka Abahani and title contenders Dhaka Mohammedan continued their winning spree to remain at the top of the Bangladesh League table at the end of the fourth round on Wednesday.

National forward Enamul struck the winner for Dhaka Abahani in their 1-0 win over Muktijoddha as league resumed after one-and-a-half month break due to SAFF Championship and its preparations.

Ace forward Emily scored a brace for Dhaka Mohammedan who beat Arambagh 2-0. Sheikh Russell were back to winning ways with a 2-0 away win over Chittagong Abahani while Brothers Union survived a scare with a goalless draw against Rahmatganj.

Feni Soccer enjoyed their first victory defeating Biyanibazar 1-0 and Farashganj were held to a goalless draw by Chittagong Mohammedan.

Dhaka Abahani and Mohammedan both have 12 points, Sheikh Russell have 10, while Brothers Union and Farashganj both have six points each.

 

Pakistan Update

PFF Cup to be added to the 2010 schedule.

Domestic Events

PFF U14 Youth Cup (2-16 Feb)

Inter Club Championship (1 Feb – 30 April)

12th National U14 Football Championship (19 Feb – 4 March)

KPT sponsored- PFF Cup (Feb - March)

20th National Challenge Cup (April)

National School Championship (March-October)

Football/Futsal Seminar (Apr-May)

Transfer Window for PPFL, PFF League (15 Apr- 15 May)

Pakistan Premier League to get 56th National Champion (May-Dec)

1st National Futsal Championship (Aug - Sep)

PFF League (Oct - December)

 

Bangladesh League

Football league resumes Mar 1

The Bangladesh League, the professional football league, will resume on March 1 after a seven-week break following the national football team's engagements in the just concluded South Asian Games and upcoming AFC Challenge Cup.

Holders Abahani will take on Brothers Union at Bangabandhu National Stadium on the day while Mohammedan will play against Sheikh Russel KC the next day at the same venue.

After the conclusion of the 13th round games, the mid-season transfer window will open for six days from March 24 to 30. The participating clubs can enrol new players as well as buy other club's players.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=126353

 

KRL retain the National Challenge Cup in Pakistan

Read more at www.footballpakistan.com

 

PFF Congress on August 7

Kuala Lumpur: August 7, 2010, will be a red-letter day in the history of Pakistan football when the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) will amend its statutes on the principles of FIFA Standard Statutes.

The amendments will include reorganisation of some of the standing committees.

The PFF Congress will also vote to abolish the women’s wing and give full powers of serving and developing women’s football in this South Asian country to the women’s committee.

The two members of the women’s wing, who are part of the PFF Executive Committee, will no longer be in the executive committee. The executive committee will have president, three vice-presidents, eight members from provinces (two from each province) and three members from Services organisation.

The PFF will also embrace modern football practices by giving selection powers to the head coach. The amendments also include re-formation of the selection committee which will have head coach as chairman and assistant coach as deputy chairman. Four members of the technical committee of the PFF, two former national captains and technical director will also be part of the process.

The PFF Congress will be held PFF Headquarters in Lahore at 1.30pm local time

http://www.the-afc.com/en/football-development/vision-asia/29924-pff-congress-on-august-7

 

Pakistan will increase the PPL to 16 teams for next season:

http://www.footballpakistan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4107&Itemid=1

 

I'd maybe go a little bit futher and join SAFF with ASEAN, or at least join the youth tournaments together.

But i guess at senior level, we already have tournaments like Nehru Cup and Merdeka Cup that bring that sides together already.

 

Interesting development here. It's been in the pipe line a while now. Is September a suitable time? Wouldn't it be better off played before the AFC Competitions start to get in some worthwhile practice?

India, hmm Ok. Wasn't it not that long ago that India in some eyes devalued the championship by playing an Under 21 squad. Is it fair to play it in India?

About bleeding time! What did the last SAFF President do? The new President has turned everything around.

I expect they will get turned down. AFC could make life easier for smaller nations though in getting regional championships such as SAFF, WAFF, EAFF and ASEAN Championship winners getting a finals berth.

I would personally be happy to see more nations from CAFF and SAFF represented at the Asian Cup, but these nations need to help themselves first in developing the domestic game first. Lets start at home before going full hogg.

The delegates might also want to be reminded that they have 3 South and Central members at the Asian Cup already, they are India, Uzbekistan and Iran. What they really are crying for is more SAFF members, simply won't happen.

 

You better believe it! I can't confirm when or where this game was played and haven't seen many videos of games played in Pakistan, but from a few photos i've seen in the past, I cna confirm that some fans would just sit on the touchline and on some occasions actually lean against the goalposts, this is the state of the game in some of the, well what i can say, playing fields, I'd hate to say stadium.

You can probably find out much more at www.footballpakistan.com which has a few hardcore fans who could tell you much much more. This video makes it more and more laughable when you here that Pakistan want to play in the ACL, what would the AFC say on an inspection visit to that?

Again, I can't confirm the ground, but according to wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Pakistan_Premier_League the smallest stadium in use is 10,000 capacity. So, if anything before last seasons expansion the clubs obviously didn't play in proper stadia. Would be interesting to see any videos of the last season to see whats changed.

 

Has anymore news come out on this? You brought this news to us in October 2010, so SAFF have 11 months to prepare for something, 5 months down the line and no other news seems apparent. Are they still going ahead?