All five teams competing in the upcoming “Ooredoo SAFF Championship 2021” have arrived in the Maldives.

The 13th SAFF Championship is scheduled to kick off on Friday and will proceed through October 16.

While the SAFF region comprises of seven countries, only five are participating in this year’s championship; Maldives, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Bhutan had earlier withdrawn from competing in this championship due to Covid-19 concerns, however, Pakistan was unable to compete in the championship due to a FIFA suspension.

The championship will proceed on a league basis with matches between the five teams, and the best two teams heading to the finals.

The team from Nepal arrived on Monday, followed by teams from the remaining countries arriving on Tuesday.

The first match of the championship will be held on October 1, between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, following the commemoration of the championship, Maldives and Nepal will go head-to-head in the second match of championship on Friday night.

Comprised of 29 players, Maldives National Football Team departed to Qatar on September 10, for its training camp ahead of the championship. The team returned to the Maldives on Monday morning. The national team began training for the championship on August 26, with a preliminary squad comprising of 34 players. The Maldivian team is camping in Hotel Jen in the capital, Malé City upon return.

During the Qatar camp, Maldives played two friendlies. The team won against Lusail SC 4 – 3 last Tuesday, and tied with Army National Team 1 – 1 during Saturday’s match. Maldives was initially set to play three friendlies, however, due to visa issues the Sri Lankan team was unable to camp in Qatar.

On Sunday the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) finalized and publicized the National Football Team squad for the highly-anticipated football carnival. The squad, comprised on 24 players, was finalized with the exclusion of five players from the training squad.

The five members eliminated from the squad are three defenders; Ali Shamis, Ahmed Abdulla, Moosa Yameen, midfielder Yasfaadh Habeeb and forward Hassan Nazeem.

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.