SAFF Women's Championship 2026 Kicks Off in India's Goa

Kathmandu. The biggest festival of South Asian football, SAFF Women's Championship 2026, is starting from Monday in Goa, India. 

In the opening match to be held at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Madgaon, Goa, Nepal will face Bhutan. The competition is scheduled to start at 4:45 PM Nepali time.

This time, 6 South Asian countries have participated in the championship. The participating teams have been divided into two groups. Group 'A' includes Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, while Group 'B' includes defending champions Bangladesh, host India, and Maldives. 

The matches in the group stage will be played on a single round-robin basis, where each team will play one match against the other teams in their group. After the completion of the group stage, the top two teams from both groups will advance to the semi-finals.

Nepal will play its second match against Sri Lanka on May 31. That match will start at 4:45 PM Nepali time. The final match of the competition is scheduled to be held on June 6.

Based on FIFA rankings, host India is the strongest team in this competition, currently ranked 69th in FIFA rankings. Looking at history, India has won the SAFF Women's Championship title five times, in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019. 

However, in the last two editions, Bangladesh maintained its high performance and secured the titles in 2022 and 2024.