The 2024 SAFF U-17 Championship will be 9th 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). It is scheduled to be played from 18–28 September 2024 in Thimphu, Bhutan.[1][2]
India are the defending champions, who won their fifth title in by defeating Bangladesh 2–0 goals in the final on 10 September 2023.[3]
Venue
All matches of the tournament will held at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan.[citation needed]
Thimphu
Changlimithang Stadium
Capacity: 15,000
Thimphu
Participating teams
The following seven participants will participate in the tournament.
The draw ceremony of the tournament was held in Hotel InterContinental, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 8 June 2024. The seven participants was divided into two groups which Group A consist three teams & followed by Group B four teams.[4]
Players born on or after 1 January 2008 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 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.
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 yellots, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
In the knockout stages, 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.
^"Kazi Md. Salahuddin Re-Elected As President". SAFF. 2 July 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
^"সাফ নিয়ে বিশাল পরিকল্পনা কাজী সালাউদ্দিনের". www.footballbangladesh.com (in Bengali). 16 September 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
^"India emerge SAFF U16 champions, make short work of Bangladesh in final". www.the-aiff.com. 10 September 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
^"সাফ অনূর্ধ্ব-১৭ চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপের ড্র অনুষ্ঠিত হলো ঢাকার ইন্টার কন্টিনেন্টাল হোটেলে". www.dhakapost.com (in Bengali). 8 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.