2023 SAFF U-19 Championship

2023 SAFF U-19 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Nepal
Dates	21–30 September 2023
Teams	6 (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	India (3rd title)
Runners-up	Pakistan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	9
Goals scored	26 (2.89 per match)
Attendance	23,233 (2,581 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jigme Namgyel Gwgmsar Goyary Samir Tamang (3 goals each)
Best player(s)	Manglenthang Kipgen
Best goalkeeper	Lionel Daryl Rymmei
Fair play award	Bhutan

The 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship was the 5th edition of the SAFF U-19 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-19 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). It took place from 21–30 September 2023 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

India are the defending champions, who won their second title in 2022 by defeating Bangladesh in the final on 5 August 2022.

Venue

On 22 July 2023, SAFF announced the tournament will be held at the Dasharath Rangasala in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kathmandu
Dasharath Rangasala
Capacity: 15,500
	Kathmandu

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	5th	Runners-up (2017, 2019, 2022)
Bhutan	4th	Fourth place (2017, 2019)
India	5th	Winners (2019, 2022)
Maldives	5th	Third place (2019)
Nepal	5th	Winners (2015, 2017)
Pakistan	1st	–

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
Nepal (hosts) India	Maldives Bhutan	Bangladesh Pakistan

Draw result

Group A	Group B
Nepal	India
Maldives	Bhutan
Pakistan	Bangladesh

Match officials

Referees

Assistant referees

• Shaheem Hussain
• Yadhav Kishan Kanaya
• M Sawant Dipesh
• Passang Passang
• Sharif SM Junayed
• Mehboob Ali

Players eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 2005 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+05:45 Nepal Standard Time (NST).

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 yellow cards = 3 points, 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	Pakistan	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4	Qualified for Knockout stage
2	Nepal (H)	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2	3
3	Maldives	2	0	1	1	2	5	−3	1

---

---

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	India	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6	Qualified for Knockout stage
2	Bhutan	2	1	0	1	5	5	0	3
3	Bangladesh	2	0	0	2	3	7	−4	0

---

---

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	27 September–Kathmandu
	Pakistan (p)	0(6)
					30 September–Kathmandu
	Bhutan	0(5)
					Pakistan	0
	27 September–Kathmandu
					India	3
	India (p)	1(3)
	Nepal	1(2)

Semi-finals

Final

Winner

5th SAFF U-19 Championship 2023 Champions
India Fifth title

Awards

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

Fair Play Award		Best goalkeeper		Most valuable player
Bhutan		Lionel Daryl Rymmei		Manglenthang Kipgen

Statistics

Goalscorers

There have been 26 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 2.89 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Source: GSA

Final standing

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L
	India	4	4	0	0
	Pakistan	4	2	1	1
	Nepal	3	1	0	2
4	Bhutan	3	1	0	2
5	Maldives	2	0	1	1
6	Bangladesh	2	0	0	2

See also

• 2023 SAFF Championship
• 2023 SAFF U-16 Championship
• Women's
  • 2023 SAFF U-20 Women's Championship
  • 2023 SAFF U-17 Women's Championship