The SAFF officials meeting which took place on the 24th of August at Jetwing Blue, Negombo saw the discussion of important matters such as the proposition of a new 8 team inter club tournament and the 2017 SAFF Championship.
The 8 team SAFF Club Cup tournament was awarded to Bangladesh for hosting including the SAFF men’s championship which will be held in December 2017, also in Bangladesh.
The club competition will include the champion club of each country while the host country will be given an extra pick, with each club getting 25,000 USD for getting selected and the inaugural tournament is due to take place in December 2016.
Furthermore, this was the first time that Sri Lanka hosted countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan to join hands and take the necessary steps to strengthen the South Asian region to be one of the strongest regions in terms of competition and development of the game.
The 2016 SAFF women’s championship was to be held in India but since India has requested an additional 100,000 USD to the already approved 50,000 USD the decision has not been taken and a final decision will be taken in next month’s meeting. The tournament is to be held in November 2016.
The 2017 U16 championship is to be held in Nepal while the host of the 2017 U19 championship is still not decided.
“FIFA is investing USD 1Mn for Youth Development which is a huge boost for the South Asian region,” Mr.Rodrigo added.
The first time that such a meeting took place was in 1993 Nepal, Kathmandu which evidently saw Sri Lanka participating for the first time, and now has come a long way to host the prestigious meeting under the leadership of Ranjith Rodrigo.
Many officials appointed by President Anura De Silva, along with the president himself attended the meeting as the Sri Lankan delegation, and as a member of the SAFF Executive Committee (SAFF ExCo).
This meeting also saw the approving of standing committees for the discussed tournaments such as Competition and Finance for SAFF, according to Mr. Ranjith Rodrigo.
Mr.Rodrigo stressed on the formation of these standing committees by taking the blunders that occurred in 2014 as an example of the lack of preparedness.
The meeting concluded in the evening with Mr.Saaludhin and Mr. Rodrigo also emphasizing on the fact that further steps should be taken order to foster unity within the region through football.
The meeting also mentioned the next SAFF event would take place on September 26, in Goa, India.
