# 2024 SAFF U-20 Championship

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
* Lalitpurclass=notpageimage| 2024 SAFF U-20 Championship

## Participants teams

The following six participants were participated in the tournament.
| Team | Appearances | Best performance |
| Bangladesh | 6th | Runners-up (2017, 2019, 2022) |
| Bhutan | 5th | Fourth place (2017, 2019) |
| India | 6th | Champion (2019, 2022, 2023) |
| Maldives | 6th | Third place (2019) |
| Nepal | 6th | Champion (2015, 2017) |
| Sri Lanka | 3rd | Group 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 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| India  Nepal (hosts) | Maldives  Bangladesh | Bhutan  Pakistan | Sri Lanka |
Group A :
| Pos | Team |
| A1 | Nepal |
| A2 | Bangladesh |
| A3 | Pakistan |
| A4 | Sri Lanka |
Group B :
| Pos | Team |
| B1 | India |
| B2 | Maldives |
| B3 | Bhutan |

## Schedule

| Phase | Date |
| Group stage | 18–23 August 2024 |
| Semi-finals | 25–26 August 2024 |
| Final | 28 August 2024 |

## Match officials
### Referees

* Bituraj Barua
* Ugyen Penjor
* Senthil Nathan
* Afsheen Naseer
* Shyamlal Danuwar
* Mohamed Jafran Athambawa

### Assistant referees

* Md Nuruzzaman
* Hem Kumar Sunwar
* Dipesh Manohar Sawant
* Raeef Rauf
* Sahadev Shrestha
* Lahiru M. Jayaneththi

## 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.

## 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.
* 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 | Qualification |
| 1 | Nepal (H) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 6 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 2 | Bangladesh | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 3 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 3 | Sri Lanka | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 0 | |
| 4 | Pakistan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Withdrew |

### Group B

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

## 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-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 25 August–ANFA Complex | 25 August–ANFA Complex |
| Nepal (p) | 1 (4) |
| Nepal (p) | 1 (4) | 28 August–ANFA Complex | 28 August–ANFA Complex |
| Bhutan | 1 (1) | 28 August–ANFA Complex | 28 August–ANFA Complex |
| Bhutan | 1 (1) | Nepal | 1 |
| 26 August–ANFA Complex | 26 August–ANFA Complex | | Nepal | 1 |
| 26 August–ANFA Complex | 26 August–ANFA Complex | Bangladesh | 4 |
| India | 1 (3) | Bangladesh | 4 |
| Bangladesh (p) | 1 (4) | | |

### Final
## 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 Award | Fair Play Award | Best goalkeeper | Best goalkeeper | Most valuable player | Most valuable player |
| Nepal | Nepal | Mohammad Asif | Mohammad Asif | Mirajul Islam | Mirajul Islam |

## Statistics
### Goalscorers

There have been 20 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 2.22 goals per match.
4 goals
* Mirajul Islam
3 goals
* Nirajan Dhami
2 goals
* Jetsuen Dorji
* Samir Tamang
* Piash Ahmed Nova
1 goal
* Asadul Molla
* Md Rabby Hossen Rahul
* Ngawang Chope
* Rickey Meetei
* Monirul Molla
* Manglenthang Kipgen
* Ish Aafu Mohamed Firaq
Source: GSA