# 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship

The 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship was the 5th edition of the SAFF U-19 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-19 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). It took place from 21–30 September 2023 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
India are the defending champions, who won their second title in 2022 by defeating Bangladesh in the final on 5 August 2022.

## Venue

On 22 July 2023, SAFF announced the tournament will be held at the Dasharath Rangasala in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Kathmandu :
| Dasharath Rangasala ||
| Capacity: 15,500 ||
| | Kathmanduclass=notpageimage| 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship |

## Teams

Sri Lanka are ineligible for participation as they are suspended by FIFA. Other six SAFF teams are eligible to participate.
| Team | Appearances in the SAFF U-17 Championship | Previous best performance |
| Bangladesh | 5th | Runners-up (2017, 2019, 2022) |
| Bhutan | 4th | Fourth place (2017, 2019) |
| India | 5th | Winners (2019, 2022) |
| Maldives | 5th | Third place (2019) |
| Nepal | 5th | Winners (2015, 2017) |
| Pakistan | 1st | – |

### Draw

The draw was held in BFF House in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22 July 2023 at 12:00 BST (UTC+6).
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Nepal (hosts) India | Maldives Bhutan | Bangladesh Pakistan |

### Draw result

Group A :
| Pos | Team |
| A1 | Nepal |
| A2 | Maldives |
| A3 | Pakistan |
Group B :
| Pos | Team |
| B1 | India |
| B2 | Bhutan |
| B3 | Bangladesh |

## Match officials
### Referees

* Nadheem Hussain
* Astha Aditya Purkay
* Sabuj Kumar Das
* Adnan Anjum
* Nabin Maharjan
* Pema Tshewang

### Assistant referees

* Shaheem Hussain
* Yadhav Kishan Kanaya
* M Sawant Dipesh
* Passang Passang
* Sharif SM Junayed
* Mehboob Ali

## 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 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers.

## 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 | Pakistan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 4 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 2 | Nepal (H) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 3 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 3 | Maldives | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | India | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 6 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 2 | Bhutan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | Qualified for Knockout stage |
| 3 | Bangladesh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage
### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 27 September – Kathmandu | 27 September – Kathmandu |
| Pakistan (p) | 0 (6) |
| Pakistan (p) | 0 (6) | 30 September – Kathmandu | 30 September – Kathmandu |
| Bhutan | 0 (5) | 30 September – Kathmandu | 30 September – Kathmandu |
| Bhutan | 0 (5) | Pakistan | 0 |
| 27 September – Kathmandu | 27 September – Kathmandu | | Pakistan | 0 |
| 27 September – Kathmandu | 27 September – Kathmandu | India | 3 |
| India (p) | 1 (3) | India | 3 |
| Nepal | 1 (2) | | |

### Final
## Winner

* 5th SAFF U-19 Championship 2023 Champions
* India Fifth 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 |
| Bhutan | Bhutan | Lionel Daryl Rymmei | Lionel Daryl Rymmei | Manglenthang Kipgen | Manglenthang Kipgen |

## Statistics
### Goalscorers

There have been 26 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 2.89 goals per match.
3 goals
* Jigme Namgyel
* Gwgmsar Goyary
* Samir Tamang
2 goals
* Manglenthang Kipgen
1 goal
* Md Rubel Shaikh
* Asadul Molla
* Razu Ahmed Zisan
* Kingzang Tenzi
* Rinzin Dorji
* Ricky Meetei Haobam
* Sahil Khurshid
* Naoba Meitei Pangabam
* Arjun Singh Oinam
* Shanaan Rasheed Rashad
* Adam Layaan Rasheed
* Prashant Laksham
* Nirajan Dhami
* Ali Zafar
* Shah Jahan
Source: GSA

## Final standing

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L |
| | India | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| | Pakistan | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| | Nepal | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Bhutan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Maldives | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Bangladesh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |