The 2024 SAFF U-20 Championship was the 6th edition of the SAFF U-20 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-20 national teams from South Asia region, organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The tournament were played in Lalitpur, Nepal from 18–28 August 2024.

Bangladesh are the defending champions, who won their maiden title by defeating Nepal 4–1 goals in the final on 28 August 2024.

Venue

The all matches were played at the ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal.

Lalitpur
ANFA Complex
Capacity: 6,000
Lalitpur2024 SAFF U-20 Championship

Participants teams

The following six participants were participated in the tournament.

Legend

Did not participate

TeamAppearances in the SAFF U-20 ChampionshipPrevious best performance
Bangladesh6thRunners-up (2017, 2019, 2022)
Bhutan5thFourth place (2017, 2019)
India6thChampion (2019, 2022, 2023)
Maldives6thThird place (2019)
Nepal (Host)6thChampion (2015, 2017)
Pakistan
Sri Lanka3rdGroup stage (2019, 2022)
  • Pakistan withdrew from the competition on 11 July 2024.

Draw

The draw ceremony of the tournament was held at Hotel InterContinental, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 8 June 2024. The seven participants were divided into two groups, A consisting of four and B of three teams.

Seedings

Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
India Nepal (Host)Maldives BangladeshBhutan PakistanSri Lanka
Group A
PosTeam
A1Nepal
A2Bangladesh
A3Pakistan
A4Sri Lanka
Group B
PosTeam
B1India
B2Maldives
B3Bhutan

Schedule

PhaseDate
Group stage18–23 August 2024
Semi-finals25–26 August 2024
Final28 August 2024

Match officials

Referees

Assistant referees

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 and maximum 23 players.[citation needed]

Group stage

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

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Nepal (H)220031+26Qualified for Knockout stage
2Bangladesh210132+13
3Sri Lanka200203−30
4Pakistan00000000Withdrew
Sri Lanka0–1Nepal
Nirajan Dhami 23'

Bangladesh2–0Sri Lanka
Mirajul 17' Nova 85'

Nepal2–1Bangladesh
Samir 17' Nirajan Dhami 18'Mirajul 43' (pen.)

Group B

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1India220020+26Qualified for Knockout stage
2Bhutan21012203
3Maldives200213−20
Bhutan0–1India
Monirul Molla 36'

Maldives1–2Bhutan
Ish Aafu Mohamed Firaq 54'Jetsuen Dorji 21' Ngawang Chopel 90'

India1–0Maldives
Manglenthang Kipgen 90+5'

Knockout stage

  • In the knockout stage, if a match finished goalless at the end of normal playing time, extra time would have been played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner.

Bracket

Semi-finalsFinal
25 August – Lalitpur
Nepal (p)1 (4)
28 August – Lalitpur
Bhutan1 (1)
Nepal1
26 August – Lalitpur
Bangladesh4
India1 (3)
Bangladesh (p)1 (4)

Semi-finals

Nepal1–1Bhutan
Nirajan Dhami 78'Jetsuen Dorji 56'
Penalties
Ram Thapa Abinash Syangtan Semanta Thapa Jiyarat Shekh4–1Jetsuen Dorji Jigme Namgyel Ugyen Dorji

India1–1Bangladesh
Rickey Meetei 75'Asadul Molla 36'
Penalties
Gangte Pramveer Gwgwmsar Goyary Manjot Singh Parmar Akash Tirkey3–4Nova Moin Topu Asif

Final

Nepal1–4Bangladesh
Samir 80'Mirajul 45+1', 55' Rahul 71' Nova 90+6'

Winner

6th SAFF U-20 Championship 2024 Champions
Bangladesh First title

Awards

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

Fair Play AwardBest goalkeeperMost valuable player
NepalBangladesh Mohammad AsifBangladesh Mirajul Islam

Statistics

Goalscorers

There have been 20 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 2.22 goals per match.

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Source:

See also

2024 in SAFF
Men's
U-17 ChampionshipU-20 Championship
Women's
U-16 ChampionshipU-19 ChampionshipSenior Championship