In Nepal. December 17-26, 2018 GROUP A Nepal Pakistan Bangladesh Bhutan GROUP B India Maldives Sri Lanka
Previous final in 2016 - it finished India 3 Bangladesh 1 in Siliguri, West Bengal. That's India's fourth title. It was Bangladesh's first final, with Nepal having been runners-up 3 times. bangladesh vs india women's football - www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNlrD6Rmv9w&t=17s Shame about the delay, but at least there's some detail. (Sri Lanka had been mentioned as a venue, maybe just speculation.) There've been SAFF youth tournaments in Bhutan this year. (20 Nov) https://goalnepal.com/province_3/news/4089 A development that might be somewhat related, or not - Saudi Arabia has fallen out with some of its neighbours (in WAFF, West Asia) and tried to form a new soccer grouping with its allies and South Asia, SWAFF. It looked like the seven SAFF nations were set to support it, for selfless reasons I'm sure quoting the heads of FAs in Sri Lanka and Maldives. https://dailytimes.com.pk/247691/14-nations-from-south-and-west-asia-form-new-football-federation/ Then a twist, the SAFF nations seem to have changed their minds: https://www.foxsportsasia.com/footb...aw-from-south-west-asian-football-federation/ (Archived) Not sure how a Saudi-led federation can claim it'll help football for all genders, given their track record...
The city of Biratnagar is set to host the matches, in the far south-east of Nepal. As mentioned in GoalNepal's article, the stadium will need some development for the event. When they say Sahid Rangsala is Nepal's "only football stadium", I guess they mean the only one that's football-specific. - https://goalnepal.com/news/detail/4171 (Archived) The city entry gate in Biratnagar, Nepal(Bijay chaurasia, Wikimedia Commons, License CC-BY-SA 4.0)
If the animal in that photo is any guide, this tournament will be the G.O.A.T. Opening fixtures: Tue 12 Mar 2019 - Nepal v Bhutan - 05:45 GMT and Bangladesh v Pakistan - 09:45 GMT Wed 13 Mar 2019 - India v Maldives - 09:15 GMT - https://goalnepal.com/news/detail/4301 (Archived) India will be slightly advantaged by only playing two matches in the 3-team group, Group B. Nepal caused a surprise by beating India 2-1, in February's 4-team tournament in Odisha, India, where Nepal took the runner-up spot, and India 3rd. That's despite India being no.64 in the world, 44 ranking places above Nepal. The Maldives overcame similar odds to win 2-1 over Indonesia in the Singapore Quadrangular in November 2018. (thx @Fureeku!) Daytime weather in the city should be 20°-29°C. It looks like the organizers aren't using floodlights, as there are no evening games. All of the games are scheduled for live streaming.
All the teams took a hit in their Fifa rankings in 2018, due mainly to inactivity. ...(@SiberianThunderT is that right-ish?) ... These were their 2017 rankings, and (in brackets) Dec 2018 rankings. 57 (62) India, 91 (108) Nepal, 100 (125) Bangladesh, 101 (NR) Sri Lanka, 103 (132) Maldives, 114 (NR) Bhutan, NR (NR) Pakistan
These are Pakistan's first senior international games since 2014, after their youth teams played in 2018. Thx to Fureeku for this update from the Maldives – The 1st round group of India, Maldives and Sri Lanka will probably be the key point of interest, because two of them reach the semi-finals.
Ish! Inactivity is what gives a team the NR value, (or undoes NR after becoming active,) and if you look at the results page for each team, some of these drops really are results-based. Take the Maldives, for instance. Over the course of 2019, they played 10 matches, and aside from 1 draw, every match was a loss. So that's a good chunk of their drop based on results. To be fair, they did drop from #104 after one match during the March cycle to #119 in the June cycle despite playing no matches, so that drop for sure was solely due to other teams becoming "active" again. So there's 15 spots out of the 29 they dropped overall, or almost literally half. India's five-spot drop can be almost entirely attributed to results as other teams shuffled around them. Then, in the December cycle, they even lost a few rating points (while many middling C'CAF nations earned points) to drop them from #59 to #62. Now, for Nepal and Bangladesh, the drops are entirely due to other teams re-joining the rankings. Bangladesh in fact went all the to #148 in the September rankings because they went inactive before playing 3 games in the December cycle to "climb" back up to #125. And, of course, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have directly gone inactive.
Maldives are currently undergoing a training camp at UAE in preparation for the tournament. They are set to play two friendlies against UAE on 5th and 8th March in Abu Dhabi. This will be the last assignment for Mohamed Athif at the helm of the Women's National Team. Being one of only two coaches in the country with an AFC 'A' License, he is often sought after, but rejected many offers from top local clubs to stabilize the women's national side. Statistics would show that he lost 9 out of 10 games in 2018, but those who followed the team would have noticed a change in the approach and style of play as the year progressed. After two years without any action and severely out of match practice, the girls gradually regained confidence and clicked and ended the year on a high after holding Indonesia to a draw and winning on penalties. They had lost against the Indonesians earlier in the year by 6-0 and 3-1, so definite signs of progress there. Speaking to local press, Athif mentioned that their target was to go one better and reach the final of the SAFF Championship. He joked that the women's football pyramid in Maldives was upside-down, as we created the national team first, before recently implementing a grassroots structure. He also cited the importance of having a more organized club football league in place that enables players to play regularly throughout the year. Whatever happens in the tournament, the work that Mohamed Athif did must be appreciated.
Oh no, that's two SAFFs in a row that Pakistan has missed. Again it's because of a political infighting at the Pakistan Football Federation: Full article is here, with quotes from Pakistan women's captain Hajra Khan: "Just want a chance to play" - https://tribune.com.pk/story/192028...-pakistan-womens-football-captain-hajra-khan/ (Archived)
Pakistan's Olympic squad have also withdrawn from the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers. The PFF are now required to pay a hefty fine to AFC as they withdrew with less than 30 days before their first match. It's likely that, once again, PFF are going to get suspended by FIFA. Their national teams had just come out from a barren 3 year spell and things were briefly looking good for them. Their men's national team reached the semi-finals of the SAFF Suzuki Cup, and their U-15 side reached the final of the U-15 tournament, beating India en route. Back to square one for Pakistani football, I guess. They were due to host the 2020 SAFF Suzuki Cup and also rumored to have been the front runners to host either one of the next U-18 or U-15 SAFF Women's Championships.
Kickoff in the first match is very soon, 09:15 GMT: Tue 12 Mar - Nepal v Bhutan - (Stream/video) Nepal's star striker Sabitra Bhandari is in the team after being hospitalized with chickenpox this week. This opening match was rescheduled due to Pakistan withdrawing. Bangladesh will start on Thursday instead. Meanwhile, India coach Maymol Rocky has talked about their hopes for the SAFF and the upcoming Olympic Quals. India recently played in the Turkish Women's Cup 2019.
With a now-six-team tournament like this, I really wish they would do cross-group play. Like, each team would still get three group-stage matches because the "bye" teams in each group actually play each other, e.g.: MD1 - A1/A2, B1/B2, A3/B3 MD2 - A1/B1, A2/A3, B2/B3 MD3 - A1/A3, A2/B2, B1/B3 Hard to shuffle a schedule on short notice, but still.
The quality of coverage is so much better than 2016 - in Siliguri we just had phone videos from the crowd! This year, a TV channel AP1 is streaming it worldwide: 12 Mar - NEPAL v BHUTAN (video) + opening ceremony 13 Mar - INDIA v MALDIVES (video) 14 Mar - BHUTAN v BANGLADESH (live) Sri Lanka will start on Friday: 15 Mar - Maldives v Sri Lanka 09:15 GMT
Unfortunately, the games are not the only thing making the news: With given adequate time and budget such issues hinder in our football development and it's totally pity to see officials blaming the tournament location. This proves the lack of youths in the football governing body. #football #saff #saffwomensfootball #football #nepal #bhutan pic.twitter.com/1G4BVFFtdG— Sujan Maharjan (@footysm10) March 15, 2019
Sri Lanka beat Maldives 2-0. Sri Lanka Women's Team won the SAFF Women's championship 1st match against Maldives 2 - 0— Football Sri Lanka (FSL Official) (@OfficialFFSL) March 15, 2019
Bit unfortunate for Maldives as they lost their experienced center-back duo to long term injuries on the eve of the tournament. Ah well, I hope FAM won't do what they did the last time and just ignore the team for another two years. The South Asian Games (which has been delayed to December, by the way) still to look forward to.
These were the last group games - day 4, 5 and 6 15 Mar - MALDIVES v SRI LANKA (video) 16 Mar - NEPAL v BANGLADESH (2-min video) 17 Mar - SRI LANKA v INDIA (video)
Semi-final 1, Nepal v Sri Lanka stream (Wed 20 Mar) Preview: Nepal's Himalayan Times brings the usual neutral point of view - https://thehimalayantimes.com/sports/nepal-ready-to-crush-sri-lanka-in-semis/ (Archived)
Hmm, Sri Lanka did OK for the first 70 minutes! (Then the crushing began.) Semi-final 2 - India v Bangladesh - kicks off at 09:15 GMT Match preview: "SAFF Women’s C’ship: Indian team in good shape ahead of semis, says Maymol Rocky" - https://sportstar.thehindu.com/foot...a-bangladesh-maymol-rocky/article26577932.ece (Archived)