Maldives is set to kick off the official campaign for the SAFF Championship 2021, on Sunday night.

The campaign, which will be extended nationwide, will be launched at the National Football Stadium, also known as the Galolhu Stadium on Sunday night.

Maldives won its bids to host the 13th SAFF Championship, scheduled for this October, in early August.

Initially set to be held in Bangladesh during September 2020, the SAFF championship was delayed to be held this ongoing year, in the face of Covid-19 threats.

The competition was to be held in Bangladesh from September 14 to 25, according to a decision reached during a virtual meeting held between the South Asian Football Federation’s (SAFF) committee in December 2020.

The 13th SAFF Championship is scheduled from 1 - 13 October.

Comprised of 30 players, Maldives National Football Team departed to Qatar on Friday, for its training camp ahead of the championship. The team will return to Maldives after concluding the training camp, on September 28.

The national team began training for the championship on August 26, with a preliminary squad comprising of 34 players.

While the SAFF region comprises of seven countries, Bhutan had earlier withdrawn from competing in this championship due to Covid-19 concerns. Reports indicate that Bhutan still has a chance to take back its decision and rejoin the championship. Pakistan however, is unable to compete in the championship due to a FIFA suspension.

While the tournament was to conclude on October 13 as per the initial schedule, it was revised to allow participating nations get FIFA rankings points. As per FIFA rules, there will have to be three days’ gap between each matchday to get FIFA ranking points. 

Despite the change, Maldives will face Nepal in the first match of the tournament on October 1, before facing Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India respectively on October 7, 10 and 13. The top two finishers will play the final on October 16.

This is the second time Maldives will be hosting the highly-anticipated SAFF Championship. The first time was in 2008, where co-hosted with Sri Lanka. That time Maldives brought home the championship for the first time. The last SAFF championship was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2018 where Maldives and India made it to the finals. Maldives took home the championship that year as well.