Male, Maldives: The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) has announced plans to host the region’s first-ever SAFF Futsal Championship, with participation open to all member countries.
A SAFF official confirmed to "Adhadhu Sports" that discussions are ongoing and member associations have already been informed. According to the official, the tournament is expected to take place in January next year.
This would mark the first futsal competition organised specifically for South Asia. In recent years, countries in the region have only taken part in AFC futsal competitions, often struggling to achieve favourable results.
The Maldives recently featured in the qualifiers for the 2025 Asian Futsal Cup in Indonesia, where they were grouped with Afghanistan and Myanmar. The national team suffered a 10–1 defeat to Afghanistan, who are Futsal World Cup participants, and lost 7–3 to Myanmar.
Bangladesh endured heavy defeats in their qualifiers, losing 12–0 to Iran, 7–1 to Malaysia and 8–2 to the UAE. India were beaten 4–1 by Kuwait and 10–1 by Australia, before securing a 3–0 win against Mongolia. The result marked India’s first international futsal victory.
Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka did not take part in the AFC qualifiers.
In the latest FIFA futsal world rankings released on 29 August, the Maldives is ranked 106th globally and first in South Asia. Nepal follows at 118th while India is ranked 135th. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bhutan remain unranked.
