2023 SAFF U-19 Championship

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.^[1][2]

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
← 2022 2024 →

India are the defending champions, who won their second title in 2022 by defeating Bangladesh in the final on 5 August 2022.^[3][4]

Venue

On 22 July 2023, SAFF announced the tournament will be held at the Dasharath Rangasala in Kathmandu, Nepal.^[1][2]

Kathmandu
Dasharath Rangasala
Capacity: 15,500
	Kathmandu 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship

Teams

Sri Lanka are ineligible for participation as they are suspended by FIFA.^[5] 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).^[6]

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

Draw result

Group A Pos Team A1    Nepal A2  Maldives A3  Pakistan

Group B Pos Team B1  India B2  Bhutan B3  Bangladesh

Match officials

Referees

• Nadheem Hussain
• Astha Aditya Purkay
• Sabuj Kumar Das
• Adnan Anjum
• Nabin Maharjan
• Pema Tshewang

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

Source: GSA
(H) Hosts

21 September 2023

17:30

Pakistan	1–0	Nepal
Ali Zafar 76'	Report

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 3,500

Referee: Astha Aditya Dipesh (India)

---

23 September 2023

13:30

Maldives	1–1	Pakistan
Shanaan Rasheed Rashad 39'	Report	Shah Jahan 84'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 212

Referee: Sabuj Kumar Das (Bangladesh)

---

25 September 2023

13:30

Nepal	4–1	Maldives
Prashant Laksam 17' Samir Tamang 30', 90+6' Nirajan Dhami 88'	Report	Adam Layaan Rasheed 58'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 3,709

Referee: Pema Tshewang (Bhutan)

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

Source: GSA

21 September 2023

13:30

Bangladesh	0–3	India
	Report	Gwgmsar Goyary 1' Naoba Meitei Pangabam 45+5' Arjun Singh Oinam 90'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 201

Referee: Nadheem Ali (Maldives)

---

23 September 2023

17:30

Bhutan	4–3	Bangladesh
Jigme Namgyel 32', 68' Kingzang Tenzi 45+3' Rinzin Dorji 84'	Report	Md Rubel Shaikh 3' Asadul Molla 30' Razu Ahmed Zisan 55'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 300

Referee: Adnan Anjum (Pakistan)

---

25 September 2023

17:30

India	2–1	Bhutan
Gwgmsar Goyary 37' Ricky Meetei Haobam 64'	Report	Jigme Namgyel 20'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 425

Referee: Nabin Maharjan (Nepal)

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

27 September 2023 (2023-09-27)

13:30

Pakistan	0–0	Bhutan
	Report
Penalties
Adeel Younas Shah Jahan Ali Zafar Khurshid Alam Muhammad Sadam Kamil Ahmed Khan	6–5	Kinzang Tenzing Jigme Namgyel Rinzin Dorji Ugyen Dorji Pema Zangpo Tshetrim Pelzang

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 315

Referee: Astha Aditya Dipesh (India)

27 September 2023 (2023-09-27)

17:30

India	1–1	Nepal
Sahil Khurshid 26'	Report	Samir Tamang 74'
Penalties
Arjun Singh Oinam Dinesh Singh Soubam Gwgmsar Goyary Ricky Meetei Haobam Manglenthang Kipgen	3–2	Ashwin Ghorasainee Prashant Laksam Kushal Deuba Lachhu Thapa Bikram Tamang

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 12,656

Referee: Adnan Anjum (Pakistan)

Final

30 September 2023 (2023-09-30)

17:30

Pakistan	0–3	India
	Report	Manglenthang Kipgen 64', 85' Gwgmsar Goyary 90+5'

Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu

Attendance: 1,615

Referee: Nadheem Ali (Maldives)

Winner

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

Awards

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

Fair Play Award		Best goalkeeper		Most valuable player
Bhutan[7]		Lionel Daryl Rymmei[7]		Manglenthang Kipgen[8]

Statistics

Goalscorers

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

3 goals

• Jigme Namgyel
• Gwgmsar Goyary
• Samir Tamang

2 goals

• Manglenthang Kipgen

1 goal

• Md Rubel Shaikh
• Asadul Molla
• Razu Ahmed Zisan
• Kingzang Tenzi
• Rinzin Dorji
• Ricky Meetei Haobam
• Sahil Khurshid
• Naoba Meitei Pangabam
• Arjun Singh Oinam
• Shanaan Rasheed Rashad
• Adam Layaan Rasheed
• Prashant Laksham
• Nirajan Dhami
• Ali Zafar
• Shah Jahan

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

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