India Drawn With Bangladesh and Maldives in SAFF Women's Championship as Five-Time Champions Bid to End Five-Year Title Drought
India will face defending champion Bangladesh and the Maldives in Group B of the upcoming SAFF Women's Championship, scheduled to take place from May 24 to June 7 in Goa. The draw sets up what promises to be a fascinating group stage for the five-time champions, who will need to navigate a genuinely competitive group before the knockout rounds determine who lifts the title at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda.
The tournament marks the first time India has hosted the SAFF Women's Championship in a decade, and the choice of Goa one of the country's most passionate and established football hubs provides a fitting stage for a competition that has grown considerably in quality and competitiveness across recent editions. Six nations will compete for the title, with Group A comprising Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan alongside India, Bangladesh and the Maldives in Group B. The top two teams from each group will advance to single-leg semifinal knockouts, with the finalists then contesting the championship match.
Pakistan, who were expected to complete a seven-team field, will be absent after failing to receive government clearance to travel. "We reached out to all seven FAs and finally closed in on India," said Purushottam Kattel, General Secretary of the South Asian Football Federation. "All but one team Pakistan received clearance to travel. We are looking forward to a good tournament. Unfortunately, Pakistan did not get clearance from the government." Their absence is a disappointment for the competition's ambitions, though the remaining six-team field carries enough quality to produce a compelling tournament.
For India, the SAFF Women's Championship arrives at a significant moment. This will be the team's first competitive fixture since the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026, where they exited at the group stage a result that left questions unanswered about the team's readiness to compete at the continental elite level. Since then, India has played friendly matches against Kenya and Malawi, registering a victory over the latter in Africa, but competitive edge can only be truly assessed in a tournament environment. Goa provides exactly that opportunity, and with the added motivation of a home crowd, the expectation on India to perform is considerable.
The history books position India as the competition's dominant force. Five titles across the tournament's history is a record that no other nation comes close to matching. And yet, history alone tells an incomplete story. India has been conspicuously absent from the final in the last two editions both the 2022 and 2024 championships were contested between Bangladesh and Nepal, a statistic that underlines a shift in the regional power balance that India cannot afford to ignore.
Their last title came in 2019, when they defeated a host Nepal side 3-1 in the final a comfortable margin that perhaps masked the growing competitive threat from their South Asian neighbours. Since then, Bangladesh have emerged as the team to beat, claiming the defending champion's mantle with performances that reflect a genuine step forward in their football programme. Drawing Bangladesh in Group B is therefore not a formality it is the group stage's defining fixture, a contest between the tournament's most successful nation and its current champion that could determine the trajectory of both teams' campaigns before the semifinals even arrive.
Nepal's continued improvement adds further texture to the competition's landscape. Kattel's assessment captures the regional momentum well: "South Asian women's teams have been doing well recently. India and Bangladesh played in the Asian Cup, and Nepal also came close. So, we are expecting quite competitive matches." The days of India coasting to titles against outmatched opposition appear to be over. The level has risen, and India will need to rise with it.
The choice of Fatorda as the venue is a sound one. Goa's football culture runs deep the state has produced players, clubs and supporters whose passion for the game is matched by few regions in India. Playing a major international tournament in that environment, in front of crowds who understand and love football, gives the SAFF Women's Championship a backdrop worthy of the quality on display.
For India's women's team, this tournament is about more than a title. It is about reclaiming the identity of a champion showing that the dominant force in South Asian women's football can still perform when the stakes are highest, on home soil, against the best the region has to offer. Five years have passed since the last title. Goa is where the wait ends or where the questions deepen.
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