SAFF Championship needs to be competitive and meaningful

 

The participation of Kuwait and Lebanon in the upcoming 14th edition  of the South Asian Federation Football Championship in Bengaluru,India from June 21 to July 3  is welcome news.

The decision made by the South Asian Federation Football(SAFF) Championship committee to invite the two countries to  the tournament is  laudable and a step in the right direction.

It is first and foremost important for Kuwait and Lebanon to take the SAFF Championship seriously and send their first  national teams.

Only then  can  their presence become  meaningful and  relevant and pave  the way for  the tournament to become competitive, compelling, exciting  and interesting.

The SAFF Championship,the premier regional tourney,has been a low key affair in terms of quality,the level of play,competitiveness and attendance.

 

The evolution and growth of the event has left much to be desired  over the years, proving to be just another average tournament.It can be best described as dull and drab. 

The quality of  play has become poorer and less attractive.As a consequence,fans' interest in the competition has sharply dwindled and attendance continues to plummet.

That said, unquestionably,it is an important regional tournament  and brings some of the most  talented footballers in the region under one roof.

Of the ten  sub- federation tournaments held across Asia,SAFF Championship is at the bottom  in terms of featuring  some of  the weakest teams based on FIFA rankings and quality.

Robust strategies  are needed to  make  the 30 year old tournament  more appealing, relevant and competitive so that competing teams  benefit in the true sense and lure back sports  goers to games.

In 1993 the  biennial competition kicked  off in  Lahore,Pakistan with objectives to  promote friendship,brotherhood amongst South Asian countries,offer aspiring footballers a platform to showcase their talents and bolster the standards of football in the region.

Since the start of the SAFF Championship it has been a one-sided affair, with India emerging as the most dominant team.

Such has been their dominance that they have lifted the trophy 8 times.Maldives is at a distant  second winning the championship on two occasions, while Bangladesh  and Sri Lanka have won one time each.

Nepal and Bhutan are yet to win the championship. Nepal's best finish has been the second place in the last edition of the championship  held in Maldives.They went down to India in the final.

The fifth team to have won the tournament is Afghanistan.However,they left the SAFF in 2015 to join the Central Asian Football Association to play in a much bigger and more competitive tournament against tougher opponents.

Given the limited scope and  poor quality of the SAFF Championship,leaving the SAFF was in their best interest.They realized that they were in a lose-lose situation playing in the competition and would only stymie  their progress.

Despite India’s dominance, taking into consideration  the standard of play and competitiveness,only a thin line separates the seven teams.

A country as big as India with a huge population, fairly healthy state of infrastructure and facilities,history,adequate funding, decent professional league structure and grass roots football, should have been leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.

Comparatively Bangladesh and Maldives are slightly better  than Nepal, Sri  Lanka  and Bhutan when it comes to the overall state of football.

Leave alone the rest of the world, South Asian football, as it currently stands,lags behind in Asia substantially.

Unsurprisingly,they carry the minnows' tag in Asian football.It has been a story of struggle for  all teams,including India in  every tournament from Asia Cup to AFC  Club. 

The reality is that South Asian football is stuck in the bottom tier of  football nations.They have a long way to go and are in a catch -up mode. 

South  Asian  football has been plagued by  a plethora of factors-maladministration, politicking,lack of proper  structure from the grassroots development right up to the national team, absence of professional management,paucity of funding and corruption, just to name a few,over the decades.

Unless the aforementioned issues  are addressed and remedied,football development will continue to stagnate further.

Apparently a lot remains to be done and achieved on the domestic front for the majority of the countries in the region.

Foremost ,they  must get their house in order and figure out ways to take the development of football in the right direction to  first establish themselves among Asia’s elite.

In order to make this happen,I repeat here, it requires strong leadership,good governance, sound management, increased transparency and accountability,healthy state of infrastructure,adequate  funding,solid grass roots level development, professionalization of football,developing  stakeholders involvement and safeguarding the integrity of football.

India,Nepal,Bangladesh,Pakistan and Sri Lanka  have  all faced bans  at various points for violating FIFA and AFC law. Sri Lanka  will  miss this year’s  tournament  because of the FIFA ban.

Maldives narrowly  averted suspension from FIFA in 2016.Bhutan remains unscathed and has never come close to getting banned.

It says  much about the state of South Asian football.No wonder, football in the region has fallen a long way behind.

 

The football association  of respective countries holds  the key to  football’s  future success in the region and beyond. It is indispensable  that they are  honestly and truly committed to their core responsibilities to develop the game .

The SAFF Championship committee has to ensure that the SAFF championship is competitive and meaningful for competing teams and fans.