Tournament to be hosted by Nepal and will begin in August 1st Week.Draw on 31st July. Confirmed teams :- India Maldives Nepal Bangladesh Pakistan Others(No source to confirm about their participation) :- Bhutan Afghanistan Sri Lanka
good to see this tournament organised, a good preparation for the qualifiers in September. Would like to see one of these teams make next round
Pakistan 1-0 India http://www.rediff.com/sports/report/india-pakistan-saff-under-16-football/20110801.htm
Good result for Pakistan. Match Report from www.footballpakistan.com KARACHI: Striker Mansoor Khan scored the winner as Pakistan beat arch-rivals India 1-0 in their Group A encounter of the inaugural South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under-16 Championships at the Dashrath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu on Monday. Nowshera-born Mansoor capitalised on a through-ball to provide the Greenshirts with the lead in the 20th minute which lasted till the final whistle. “India is a good team and gave us a tough time but we played according to our plan which paid dividends,” Pakistan coach Sajjad Mehmood told ‘The News’ from Kathmandu on Monday. “In the first-half, we were very aggressive and had put a lot of pressure on the rivals. Mansoor’s goal boosted our morale and they played after that with even more spirit which baffled the Indians. “In the second-half, particularly in the last five to seven minutes we were in real trouble as India went all out but our goalkeeper Usman Khan made some great saves.” Sajjad added that Pakistan’s aggressive display helped them produce better results. “We had made a plan to play with an aggressive strategy and we exactly did that. Because India were very smart and any thing defensive on our part could’ve hurt us badly,” he pointed out. However, he said that due to intermittent downpour in the past few days the ground was muddy and the players had to struggle hard to put in their hundred per cent. “Although the sun had sneaked out of the clouds and it was a bit warm today, the pitch was still muddy in some areas. Mansoor also had pulled his muscle and kept receiving treatment during the game while our skipper Muneer Aftab also had the same problem due to the heavy pitch and we had to replace him in the last few minutes,” he said. Pakistan will now face Maldives on Wednesday (tomorrow) in their next game which will decide their fate for the semifinals of the six-team event. And Sajjad is eyeing another win to top the pool. “We will not take Maldives lightly and will play with an even better spirit. If we hold them to a draw, we would still be able to finish as leaders in our group,” he concluded. Hosts Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been placed in Group B. The semifinals will be held on August 8 and the final and the play-off for the third place will be conducted on August 10.
Wow that's spectacularly bad. What must our FA be thinking now, I wonder. They sent the U-16 B team to the Norway Cup, where they've been performing very well. The A team...ah well. I just hope the kids aren't taking it too badly.
More results: India 5:0 Maldives Thats India through in 2nd place. Bangladesh 0:0 Nepal Bangladesh through, Nepal play Sri Lanka tomorrow in the final group stage game.
Next championship to be played in India, May 2013. http://www.goalnepal.com/news.php?id=10576 Can't see why a smaller SAFF footballing nation can't host this event as a learning experience.
Its a good tournament and hopefully we will see one of the SAFF nations qualify for the finals.. I assume the qualification will start after this tournament..?
Yeah, qualification tends to take place in September/October time, so May I guess is a good time for SAFF nations to assess themselves. Downside being the winners/runners up will want to get AFC qualfiers going straightaway, but would have to wait 3/4 months, but losing sides have time to work on things.
Would be good if there is not much of a gap between the qualifiers and the SAFF tournament.. that would be ideal.
Last time, just one month. But maybe expect the May date to get pushed back when they realise it's not that far away.
