SAFF Championship 2025 Postponed Over Hosting Dispute

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF 2025) Championship, originally scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka this July, has been postponed to 2026. In its place, an invitational tournament is being planned to be held in Sri Lanka during the same month.

Ali Umar, a member of SAFF’s Executive Committee, explained that the postponement was primarily due to the federation’s marketing partner’s preference to conduct the championship on a home-and-away basis—a format that is not feasible this year. Initially, SAFF 2025 had considered the home-and-away model, but concerns over the tournament’s extended duration—potentially running over two months—and the associated high costs led to a reconsideration.

Subsequently, SAFF decided to adopt a centralized hosting model with Sri Lanka as the host nation. However, according to reports from Bangladesh’s Daily Observer, the marketing partner, German sports agency SportsFive, expressed a preference for hosting the tournament in Bangladesh or India if a centralized format were to be used. This preference is believed to be driven by the greater ease of securing sponsorships in those countries.

The marketing partner has historically wielded significant influence over the selection of the host country. Given SAFF’s limited financial resources to independently organize the championship, the federation was compelled to postpone the event.

Currently, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), SAFF, and the Sri Lanka Football Federation are collaborating to organize an invitational tournament as a substitute event. Details regarding the format and participating teams for this invitational are yet to be announced.