The 2017 SAFF U-18 Championship was the 2nd edition of the

SAFF U-18 Championship The SAFF U-18/U-19/U-20 Championship is a biennial football championship for male footballers under the age of 20 and is organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The championship was held for the first time in August 2015 in Nepal. ...

, an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition for men's under-18 national teams organized by

SAFF South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), founded in 1997, is an association of the football playing nations in South Asia and is part of the larger Asian Football Confederation. The members of the association are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Mald ...

. But since most teams use to send their U-18 team keeping in mind

2018 AFC U-19 Championship qualification The 2018 AFC U-19 Championship qualification was an international men's under-19 football competition to decide the participating teams for the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including ...

it has been officially changed to U-18 tournament. The tournament was hosted by

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

18–27 September 2017. It was the first time that

was hosting

event.

Host selection

A draw for tournament ceremony was held on 10 July 2017 at conference room of Bangladesh Football Federation. SAFF general secretary Anwarul Haque Helal and BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, were among others present on the occasion.

Player eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to compete in the tournament.

Participating teams

On 6 September 2017 it was announced that

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

withdrew from the tournament whereas

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

didn't take part due to internal turmoil.

Venue

Match officials

; Referees * Abdur Rahman Dhali *

Ugyen Dorji Ugyen Dorji ( dz, ཨོ་རྒྱན་རྡོ་རྗེ་, , 1855–1916) was a member of the elite Dorji family and an influential Bhutanese politician. He served as the closest adviser to Ugyen Wangchuck, the hereditary 12th Penlop of ...

* Pratik Mondal * Hussain Sinan * Laba Khatri * Farook M. Irshad ; Assistant Referees * Mohammad Shah Alam *

Phurpa Wangchuk The ''phurba'' (; alternate transliterations: ''phurpa'', ''phurbu'', ''purbha'', or ''phurpu'') or ''kīla'' (Sanskrit Devanagari: कील; IAST: kīla) is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail-like ritual implement traditionally associate ...

* Mohan Ravi * Karma Yeshi * Padam Bahadur Bhujel * Sampath Liyanagunawardena ;Referee Supervisor *

Tayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman Hasan Tayeb Shamsuzzaman (born 9 January 1970) is a Bangladeshi football referee who has been a full international referee for FIFA. Shamsuzzaman became a FIFA referee in 1999. He served as a referee at the 2002, 2010, and 2014 FIFA World ...

Format

After Sri Lanka U18 opted out from the event. Now the championship will be played on round robin basis. Each team will face every other team once respectively and the team with the most points will win the title.

Standings

*All matches are played in

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...

. *Times listed are UTC+06:00. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Winner

Awards

The following awards were given for the 2017 SAFF U-18 Championship.

Goalscorers

; 5 Goals *

Jafar Iqbal Jafar Iqbal ( bn, জাফর ইকবাল; born 27 September 1999) is a Bangladeshi professional footballer who can play on either wings preferably on the left. He currently plays for Dhaka Mohamedan Sporting in the Bangladesh Football Premi ...

; 3 Goals * Lalawmpuia ; 2 Goals *

Orgyen Tshering Orgyen Wangchuk Tshering (born 14 September 1999) is a Bhutanese international footballer who last played as a attacking midfielder for Bhutan National League club Thimphu City. He is the most capped player for Thimphu City. International caree ...

* Princeton Rebello * Roman Limbu * Dinesh Henjan ; 1 Goal * Saikot Mahmoud Munna * Rahmat Mia *

Mahbubur Rahman Sufil Mahbubur Rahman Sufil ( bn, মাহবুবুর রহমান সুফিল) is a Bangladeshi professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bangladesh Premier League club Brothers Union and the Bangladesh national team. He bega ...

* Edmund Lalrindika *

Asish Rai Asish Rai (born 27 January 1999) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Indian Super League club Mohun Bagan SG. Club career Early life and youth career Rai was born in Pakyong, a small village in Sikkim. He a ...

* Rejin Subba * Ahmed Tholal *

Abhishek Halder Abhishek Halder (born 5 October 1999) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Mohammedan in the I-League. Career Halder began his career as part of the FC Pune City Academy set up. In November 2017, Halder was selec ...

* Abhishek Rijal * Mohammed Al-Amin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:SAFF 2017 SAFF U-18 Championship 2017 in Asian football 2016–17 in Nepalese football 2016–17 in Indian football 2017 in Bhutanese football 2017 in Bangladeshi football 2017 in Maldivian football 2017 in youth association football