Bengaluru, August 22: The 2019 SAFF U-15 Championship is the 6th edition of the SAFF U-15 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-15 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation.

Players born on or after 1 January 2004 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team have registered a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom had to be goalkeepers.

The tournament has kicked off in Kolkata from Wednesday (August 21), where Indian youngsters thrashed Nepal 5-1 while Sri Lanka defeated Bhutan by 3-2.

Participating teams:

This year five South Asian countries are taking part - Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan. Maldives and Pakistan will not be taking part in the tournament in this year's format.

Venue:

Kalyani stadium of West Bengal will host all the round-robin and knockout fixtures.

Previous Winners:

The previous edition was held in Nepal and Bangladesh won the tournament, while Pakistan finished as runners-up and India finished in the third place.

Of the teams participating this year, Bangladesh and India have each won the SAFF U-15 Championship twice. Bangladesh won it in in 2015 and 2018 while India became the winners in 2013 and 2017.

Meanwhile, Nepal U-15 National Football Team’s best finish has been as runners-up in 2013 and 2017 and Bhutan’s a fourth-place. However, Sri Lanka U-15 National Football Team has never made it past the group stage.

Fixtures:

All the five teams will play each other in a round-robin phase and the top two teams will play the final. It will be held from August 21 and will continue until the winner is decided on the final day, August 31st.