The 2024 SAFF Club Championship will be the inaugural edition of the

SAFF Club Championship The SAFF Club Championship is an premier club football competition of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) region countries. Top teams of their professional leagues will contest in the tournament. The tournament will be played from the middle of ...

, the biennial international men's club

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 ...

championship of

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

organised by

South Asian Football Federation 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 ...

(SAFF).

Format

Initially, a centralized venue was planned for the tournament. Eventually, a home-and-away format over a six-seven month period was finalized as the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

expressed reservations over allotting two weeks during the regular Indian football calendar.

Teams

A total of 16 clubs will participate in the first edition, four clubs each from India, Bangladesh, three clubs from Maldives, two clubs from Nepal, as well as one club each from Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, will participate in the competition. The following teams will participate in the tournament.

References

SAFF competitions {{Asia-footy-competition-stub