Hosts India drawn with Nepal, Sri Lanka

Highlights

New Delhi: Hosts India were drawn alongside Nepal and Sri Lanka in Group B of the SAFF U19 Championship 2025 in the draw conducted in Kathmandu,...

New Delhi: Hosts India were drawn alongside Nepal and Sri Lanka in Group B of the SAFF U19 Championship 2025 in the draw conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Earlier, Arunachal Pradesh was awarded the hosting rights for the SAFF U-19 Championship, marking the state’s

first-ever international football tournament, which will take place at the Golden Jubilee Stadium in Yupia from May 9 to 18. The venue had also hosted the Santosh Trophy Final Round in March last year.

Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh were drawn in Group A. For the draw, the teams were seeded in three pots based on the latest FIFA Men’s Rankings as of December 2024.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals that will be played on May 16. The final will take place on May 18.

India are the defending champions, having beaten Pakistan 3-0 in the final of the 2023 edition held in Kathmandu. In 2024, the tournament was held for the U20s, where India lost to Bangladesh on penalties in the semi-finals.

This will be the fourth time India will host an age-group SAFF competition after U20 men’s (Bhubaneswar 2022), U18 women’s (Jamshedpur 2022) and U15 men’s (Kalyani 2019).

The 2025 SAFF U-19 Championship will mark the seventh edition of the regional youth football tournament, organised by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), featuring men’s under-19 national teams from South Asia.

Draw:

Group A: Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh; Group B: India (hosts), Nepal, Sri Lanka

India’s fixtures:

May 9: Sri Lanka vs India; May 13: India vs Nepal; May 16: Semi-finals; May 18: Final