2023 SAFF U-16 Championship

2023 SAFF U-16 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Bhutan
Dates	2–10 September 2023
Teams	6 (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	India (5th title)
Runners-up	Bangladesh
Tournament statistics
Matches played	9
Goals scored	27 (3 per match)
Attendance	16,475 (1,831 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Md Arbash (3 goals)
Best player(s)	Md Arbash
Best goalkeeper	Suraj Singh
Fair play award	Pakistan

The 2023 SAFF U-16 Championship was the 8th edition of the SAFF U-16 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-17 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). Its was played from 2–10 September 2023 in Thimphu, Bhutan.

India are the defending champions, who won their fifth title in 2023 by defeating Bangladesh in the final.

Venue

On 22 July 2023, SAFF announced the tournament will be held at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Thimphu
Changlimithang Stadium
Capacity: 15,000
	Thimphu

Teams

Sri Lanka are ineligible for participation as they are suspended by FIFA. Other six SAFF teams are eligible to participate.

Team	Appearances in the SAFF U-17 Championship	Previous best performance
Bangladesh	8th	Winners (2015, 2018)
Bhutan	6th	Fourth place (2017)
India	8th	Winners (2013, 2017, 2019, 2022)
Maldives	6th	Group stage (2011, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022)
Nepal	8th	Runners-up (2013, 2017, 2019, 2022)
Pakistan	4th	Winners (2011)

Draw

The draw was held in BFF House in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22 July 2023 at 12:00 BST (UTC+6).

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Bhutan (hosts) India	Nepal Maldives	Bangladesh Pakistan

Draw result

Group A	Group B
India	Bhutan
Nepal	Maldives
Bangladesh	Pakistan

Match officials

Referees

Assistant referees

• Sunwar Hem Kumar
• Madhav Khatri
• Bikash Sarker
• Raeef Rauf
• B. Nagoorkani

Players eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 2007 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team has to register a squad of minimum 16 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers.

Group stage

• Times listed are UTC+06:00 Bhutan Time.

Key to colours in group tables
	Group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
8. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellots, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
9. Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	India	2	2	0	0	2	0	+2	6	Qualified for Knockout stage
2	Bangladesh	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
3	Nepal	2	0	0	2	0	2	−2	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pakistan	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6	Qualified for Knockout stage
2	Maldives	2	1	0	1	3	5	−2	3
3	Bhutan (H)	2	0	0	2	3	5	−2	0

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Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	8 September–Thimphu
	India	8
					10 September–Thimphu
	Maldives	0
					India	2
	8 September–Thimphu
					Bangladesh	0
	Pakistan	1
	Bangladesh	2

Semi-finals

Final

Winner

8th SAFF U-16 Championship 2023 Champions
India Fifth title

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Fair Play Award		Goalkeeper		Golden Boot Award
Pakistan		Suraj Singh		Md Arbas

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 29 goals scored in 10 matches, for an average of 2.9 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: GSA

See also

• 2023 SAFF Championship
• 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship
• Women's
  • 2023 SAFF U-20 Women's Championship
  • 2023 SAFF U-17 Women's Championship