Pakistan, who won bronze in the 1997 edition, will take part in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship 2007, according to a report Sunday by the private NNI news agency.
After a meeting of the South Asian Football Federation held in New Delhi, member nations have agreed to hold the tournament in Male of Maldives and Colombo of Sri Lanka, from Dec. 10 to Dec. 22.
It has been agreed to have the opening ceremony in Male while the closing ceremony along with the tournament final in Colombo. Therefore, group matches that involve Maldives will be played in the National Stadium in Male, and group matches involving Sri Lanka will be played in the Sugathadha Stadium in Colombo.
According to the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), they are trying to bring the closing ceremony to Male, but it has not been finalized.
"Right now it's agreed to have the opening ceremony in Male. But we want the closing ceremony to be held in Male instead of opening ceremony," FAM Vice President Abdul Hameed Abdul Ghafoor said. "So we have decided to have a further discussion to finalize it."
A total of six tournaments were played in the past and India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the only three nations that won the tournament. The SAFF championship is held biannually to promote the development of soccer in South Asia. Launched at the Railway Stadium in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in 1993 as the SAARC Gold Cup, which is known as the SAFF championship since 1997.
The showpiece event of SAFF in seven months time will be comprised of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan.
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