Now it will turn into a 4 and 3 group. Saff are going downhill.. I doubt it will be split up, but then again, there are too many confederations in my opinion
India and Bangladesh have no common interests with ASEAN members so I can't see that ever happening. SAFF Championship has been played with 7 nations before so it's not an issue. Just because Pakistan are shooting themselves in the foot doesn't mean that everyone else suddenly wants to jump to another federation.
Bangladesh leave there players behind! Oh god, what a nation to play for. http://www.thedailystar.net/sports/football/booters-left-stranded-194194
They just left there players behind in a foreign country, yet Bangladesh reckon they can turn the Bangabandhu Cup into one of Asia's finest tournaments! Someone's having a laugh arent they!! http://www.thedailystar.net/sports/football/bd-grouped-malaysia-194191
K-Electric’s ITC issue potentially breaches FIFA rules: AFC [Dawn] Interesting article here: http://www.footballpakistan.com/201...sue-potentially-breaches-fifa-rules-afc-dawn/
After a tumultuous year for the Football Association of Maldives, the 2016 football calendar in Maldives just concluded and for the first time in years, people who follow local football here are pleasantly surprised at how things turned out. Refreshingly the three tournaments were won by three different teams: Dhivehi Premier League: Maziya S&RC FA Cup: Club Valencia President's Cup: Club Eagles The league, although a lot closer than recent years, was unsurprisingly won by Maziya (their first ever league title), the moneyball club who have invested heavily over the past few seasons to bring in the country's best players. Club Valencia, a traditional powerhouse of Maldives, won their first trophy in eight years after being in the doldrums in recent seasons with financial mismanagement. Their comeback is a refreshing breath of fresh air for followers of Maldivian football. Both these clubs will play in the AFC Cup next year. The story of the season, however, belongs to Club Eagles, the family run club that have remained true to their roots since their inception in 1989. They finished third in the league despite having the smallest budget and the youngest squad, with an average age of 23, in the whole division. I kind of wish they made it to the AFC Cup as well, but alas, we only have two slots in the competition. I will try to bring you the story of Club Eagles in my next post, because I think their model is one which other SAFF clubs can utilize to be successful in their respective leagues.
The 2nd Sheikh Kamal International Gold Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh from 18th February to 3rd March. Participating teams are: Bangladesh Dhaka Abahani Chittagong Abahani Dhaka Mohammedan Nepal Manang Marsyangdi Afghanistan Shaheen Asmayee Philippines Stallion FC Maldives TC Sports Club S. Korea FC Pocheon Dhaka Abahani, Manang Marsyangdi and Shaheen Asmayee are the reigning champions of their respective leagues. Stallion finished a disappointing 6th in theirs, while TC Sports Club are the perennial runners-up, having finished 2nd place in the league and even losing in the FA Cup and President's Cup finals. They were offered the chance to participate in this tournament by FAM after both league and FA Cup champions, Maziya and Club Valencia declined their offers due to AFC Cup engagements. This is only their second season in the top flight, having climbed up the divisions with an ethos of picking players from troubled backgrounds and giving them a new lease of life. FC Pocheon currently ply their trade in the fourth tier of the Korean football pyramid and their squad consists of part-timers.
Stallion FC played a friendly against the Maldives national team last year in Manila which resulted in a 2-2 draw. Of course that was a different team from this year's edition and are currently in preseason so they are looking for matches before the season starts in April. http://pff.org.ph/2015/08/30/stallion-fc-maldives-draw-friendly-match/ Maybe that is why Stallions FC was invited.
Its not a Saff tournement, its a invitational club competition, South Korea and Phillipines have sent there respective clubs too, so doesnt mean they have joined saff Afghanistan is still in CAFA
To be honest, I wouldn't mind if Afghanistan are invited to play in the SAFF Championship this year. But I think AIFF see you guys as too much of a threat to their dominance now, so it's probably wishful thinking.
The more games you play, the better it is, it's good for Afghanistan football, but unfortunately SAFF is the only federation that have gone backwards. This is why India are always reluctant to play and I wouldn't be surprised that in future SAFF tucks they send an underage squad.
Yeah, India are always trying to play down the SAFF Cup and constantly threaten to send underage squads (which, save for 2009 when they sent a "Under-23 squad" with several overage players), but always end up sending in their strongest squad. Apparently they're too big and too good for the tournament, yet insist on hosting one every other year.
But reality is, that India are the best in the region, the only team that can come close to them is Nepal, the rest are very poor level and that is because the respective federations do not invest or have any sort of long term plan.
In this edition of the tournament, 8 club teams will participate to fight for the prestigious trophy including five foreign teams. The teams are: Shaheen Asmayee FC (Afghanistan), Manang Marshyangdi Club (Nepal), TC Sports Club (Maldives), Pocheon Citizen Football Club (South Korea), FC Alga Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Dhaka Abahani Limited, Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited and hosts Chittagong Abahani Limited. The official draw and trophy unveiling ceremony of the 'Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup 2017' will be held at 3:30 pm on February 13 (Monday), 2017 at the ball room of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka. http://www.bff.com.bd/bff/index.php...-begins-feb-18&catid=34:latest-news&Itemid=74
That is true, and Nepal's investment at grassroots level appear to be showing signs of promise. I think the steps taken by Maldives and to an extent, Sri Lanka during recent times is also very encouraging. Both nations have revamped their league and cup competitions for greater inclusion of clubs from all over the country, thus considerably expanding their talent pool. Bhutan's added experience in competitive international matches will hopefully kickstart them as well. Only Bangladesh and Pakistan appear to be the problem nations. After a few tumultuous years where nothing was being done, FAM finally have a President, a functioning ExCo with actually talented individuals and a Technical Committee with a foreign Technical Director. Clubs playing in the top two divisions are required to have their youth academies, so these clubs have made agreements with local schools to train kids who want to play football. Also the Male'-centric approach that was used in the past has been scrapped, and teams from other parts of the country, where 2/3rd of the population live, will get to play in the Premier League starting from this year. I think for all their recent investment in football, India knows that they are still some way behind the ASEAN and CAFF nations in terms of quality and secretly enjoy being dominant in one area. India, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives will play a lot of matches before December, so I think the SAFF Cup is going to be pretty competitive this year.
https://www.maldivesfootball.com/story/TC-groups-in-A-with-tough-opponents-110 Group A Dhaka Abahani Ltd Alga Bishkek FC TC Sports Club Pocheon Citizen Club Group B Chittagong Abahani Manang Marsyangdi Dhaka Mohammedan Shaheen Asmayee I have no idea how Alga Bishkek replaced Stallions FC at the last minute, but there you go! Also, this would be a great experience for many of the TC Sports Club players, some of whom have never step foot out of Maldives before. They are going to have a couple of games in hand in the league when they come back, but I'm sure they won't mind.
http://bdnews24.com/sport/2016/01/02/bangladesh-to-host-2017-saff-championship "The 12th edition would commence in December, 2017, according to SAFF General Secretary Anwarul Haque Helal." December is the only realistic time when it could be held, as Asian Cup qualifiers for India, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan would run from March to November.
Group A FC Pocheon 2-0 FC Alga Bishkek Dhaka Abahani 0-1 TC Sports Club Group B Dhaka Mohammedan 0-2 Manang Marsyangdi Chittagong Abahani 3-1 Shaheen Asmayee Alga Bishkek's manager's response to his sides' defeat was that "South Korea played in a World Cup semi-final." What a bizarre excuse!
Yes, the Alga Bishkek manager reminds of the sort of thing old Maldivians say whenever the national team got beaten by a bunch of middle-aged Italian cargo ship crew back in the 70s. Back then, cargo ships crossing the Indian Ocean would often make rest stops at Maldives for a few days and their crew would unwind by playing football with the locals. Of course, our hastily assembled national team would get thrashed by them, and the locals would talk about how fortunate we were to have had the opportunity to play against "World Cup winners"...
http://indianexpress.com/article/sp...entral-asia-competitions-stephen-constantine/ Lots of people involved with Indian Football want this to happen except the AIFF who would like to project SAFF cup victory as the epitomy of success and progress . We should be playing bigger and better teams like Thailand,Indonesia etc,that's how we should be preparing for ACQs and WCQs . In SAFF i don't think anyone except Afghanistan provide some serious competition (With all due respect,No offence meant) and you need serious competition to actually progress.