The Indian national team is a remarkably absent from the current Saff Championship among the 20 ladies who take place in Bangladesh.
Apart from the host, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are the other teams participating in the tournament that is played in a double Round-Robin League classification.
Although the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has not spent an official reason not to participate, the U-20 team Uzbekistan will play in two friendly matches on 13 and 16 July that will coincide with the current saff tournament.
These two friendly competitions are in preparation for the upcoming AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup qualifications that India encounters in Indonesia, Turkmenistan and Myanmar.
Another possible reason could be the safety problems that happened after the Saff U-19 Women’s Championship final last year between India and host Bangladesh. After a 1-1 draw after the regulation time, the teams went to a penalty shootout. After the score that reads 11-11, the referee went interesting in a coin throw to decide the winner. India stood on the right side of this throw, which raged the guest team and fans.
After more than two hours of waiting, the trophy was then shared.
