Dhaka, Oct 21: The first ever SAFF Club Championship will be held in September 2011, it was decided in a meeting of the South Asian Football Federation at the J. W. Marriot Hotel in Dubai last Monday.
It has been also decided that, the seventh SAFF Championship will take place in India in December 2011. The venue is yet to be decided but the top competition of the region will be played between December1-15.
An Under-16 boys’ tournament will be held in July or August next year so that the SAFF youths can prepare for the AFC Youth (U-16) Championship in the same year. To increase the intensity of the competition one team each from ASEAN and Central Asia will be invited to the event.The SAFF delegates also decided to appeal to AFC for allowing three teams from South and Central Asia regions in the Asian Cup. Now only the AFC Challenge Cup champions can participate in the tournament.