India, Pakistan in same group of SAFF Men’s Championship

The Men’s SAFF Championship will be held in Bangladesh from November 4-17. The draw for this tournament was held on Saturday in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Hosts Bangladesh has been placed in Group ‘A’.

The arch-rivals India and Pakistan have been placed in the same group, namely Group ‘B’.

The other team in this group are Maldives. The champions and runners-up of this group will play in the semi-finals.

Hosts Bangladesh’s opponents in the Group-A are Bhutan and Sri Lanka. If Nepal can be freed from the ban by September, they will be in the group of hosts Bangladesh.

Then the top two teams in the four-team group will also play in the semi-finals. If Nepal cannot come, there will be a group of three teams.

Bangladesh were the last SAFF champions in 2003. After 2009, they reached the semi-finals in India in 2023 after breaking a 14-year drought. After 2018, they have hosted SAFF again.

Group A: Bangladesh, Nepal (conditionally), Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Group B: India, Maldives and Pakistan.