# 2022 SAFF U-17 Championship

The 2022 SAFF U-17 Championship was the seventh edition of the SAFF U-17 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-17 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The tournament took place in Sri Lanka from September 5 to 14, 2022. Six teams from the region took part.
India is the defending champion. They have won previous season title by beating Nepal 7−0 on 31 August 2019.

## Participating teams

FIFA suspended Pakistan Football Federation on 7 April 2021, but eventually withdrew the ban, yet they could not participate in the competition as it was too late for them to be ready.
| Team | Appearances in the SAFF U-17 Championship | Previous best performance |
| India | 7th | Champions (2013, 2017, 2019) |
| Bangladesh | 7th | Champions (2015, 2018) |
| Nepal | 7th | Runners-up (2013, 2017, 2019) |
| Bhutan | 5th | Fourth Place |
| Sri Lanka | 6th | Group Stage |
| Maldives | 5th | Group Stage |

## Venue

All matches are being held at the Racecourse Ground in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
| Colombo | Colombo |
| Racecourse Ground | Colombo |
| Capacity: 10,000 | Colombo |

## Draw

Once the hosting nation is announced, it will be put in the 1st position of pot 1 while Maldives will be moved to pot 3.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Sri Lanka (Hosts) India | Nepal Bangladesh | Bhutan Maldives |
| Source: SAFF |||

## Players' eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 2006, 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+05:30 Sri Lanka Standard Time.
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.
* Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* 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;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
* 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);
* Drawing of lots.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Status |
| 1 | Bangladesh | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | +9 | 6 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 2 | Sri Lanka (H) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 3 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 3 | Maldives | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | −6 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Status |
| 1 | Nepal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 6 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 2 | India | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 3 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 3 | Bhutan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage
### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 12 September–Colombo | 12 September–Colombo |
| Bangladesh | 1 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 14 September–Colombo | 14 September–Colombo |
| India | 2 | 14 September–Colombo | 14 September–Colombo |
| India | 2 | India | 4 |
| 12 September–Colombo | 12 September–Colombo | | India | 4 |
| 12 September–Colombo | 12 September–Colombo | Nepal | 0 |
| Nepal | 6 | Nepal | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 0 | | |

### Final
## Winner

* 7th SAFF U-17 Championship 2022
* India Fourth title

## Goalscorers

There have been 35 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 3.89 goals per match (as of 14 September 2022).
4 goals
* Unesh Budhathoki
* Thanglalsoun Gangte
* Mirajul Islam
3 goals
* Mohammed Mursed Ali
2 goals
* Vanlalpeka Guite
* Subash Bam
1 goal
* Mohammed Rubel Shaikh
* Sirajul Islam Rana
* Mohammed Nazim Uddin
* Nazmul Huda Faysal
* Jetsune Dorji
* Danny Meitei
* Bobby
* Korou
* Harish Raj Bhatta
* Niraj Karki
* Sijal Rai
* Prashant Laksham
* Semanta Thapa
* Saroj Darlami
* M. M. Yasser Sharfaraz
* Mohamed Aiham Ibrahim
Source: SAFF