SAFF football championship will get start today with eight teams taking part in the biggest soccer tournament in the South Asian region.
In the 14th edition of the tournament, Lebanon and Kuwait are two guest teams, outside the South Asia are taking part in the competition which is set to take place at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, India.
The tournament will kick off with Kuwait taking on Nepal in the opening match, two matches will be held in the opening day when the hosts and the defending champions of the tournament India will face their arch-rivals Pakistan in the day’s second game.
Pakistan will play their first match on Indian soil since 2014.
The two countries rarely play any home matches, whether cricket or football against each other or any sport due to long-running political unrest.
The participation of Pakistan in the Bengaluru event has raised hopes Islamabad will take part in the ICC World Cup cricket tournament to be held in India this year.
Pakistan team, who have been going through enormous uncertainty with their participation in the SAFF, as first of all there were confusion whether the team will get Indian visa. After issuing visa, another dilemma arose, as Pakistan Government also delayed to permit the team to visit India. Finally, the Ministry of Interior of Pakistan has issued a NOC to the football federation of the country, allowing their men’s national football team to participate in the SAFF Championship. By this time the Pakistan team, who were in Mauritius for conditioning camp had to cancel their tickets to travel India for twice, however, finally they arrived India. But the Pakistan team will have to play the match against India after few hours of their arrival in Bangalore.
The SAFF championship is the most coveted soccer competition of this region, as huge excitement build up among the fans.
India, the highest eight times champions are moraly high after winning the Hero International Cup football defeating Lebanon by 2-0 in the final on Monday.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh, who had once the opportunity to celebrate the most prestigious title of the region also went Bangalore with some positive aspects when before to reach India they played two practice matches in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, Bangladesh played a FIFA friendly match against the Cambodian national side and another match against local premier League team when they defeated both the sides. Bangladesh will begin their campaign from tomorrow with taking on the top favourites of this time Lebanon.
Lebanon is also the top FIFA ranked 99 among all eight participating teams of this time when India are the second with 101 followed by Kuwait 144 and Bangladesh team are 192. According to an information from Bangalore, almost all players are okay and expecting to ready to play.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh could not win the trophy since they won it in 2003 in home ground and failed to even to play the semifinal since 2009.
