The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) has announced that “the tournament will now be held next year.”
In an unexpected move, SAFF has decided to change the schedule of the SAFF Championship 2025. The 15th edition of the tournament, originally planned for this year, has now been postponed to next year, according to the federation.
Earlier, SAFF had stated that the tournament would be held around June-July this year. However, they hadn’t finalized a host nation at that time. Sri Lanka was mentioned as a potential host, but no official decision was made.
On Thursday, SAFF published the update on its official website. The statement reads that “SAFF, its member nations, and Sportfive (the commercial rights holder) believe more time is needed to ensure the event is organized smoothly.” As a result, this year’s SAFF Championship has been postponed and will now take place in 2026.
So far, 14 editions of the tournament have been held. India has won the title the most times (9), followed by the Maldives (2). Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka have each lifted the trophy once.
The last edition of South Asia’s premier football tournament took place in 2023, hosted in Bengaluru, India. India emerged as champions by defeating guest team Kuwait in the final. As per tradition, the tournament was supposed to return in 2025 after a two-year gap — but that’s now been delayed.
