India will host the 14th edition of the SAFF Championship in June with eight nations participating in the competition.

Traditional outfits like India, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Bhutan will be joined by Lebanon and Kuwait who have been invited to take part in the competition.

The Blue Tigers are the defending champions having won the trophy two years ago in Maldives and will look to triumph again on home soil. India are hosting the tournament for the fourth time and have won all previous three editions held here.

As the tournament approaches, here is a look at some of the key stats.

India’s dominance

India have won the SAFF Championship a record eight times, with only Maldives being the other nation to have won the competition more than once.

The Blue Tigers have made it to the final of each edition barring the 2003 edition where they finished third.

Nation	Champions	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth place
India	8 (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2021)	4 (1995, 2008, 2013, 2018)	1 (2003)	Nil
Maldives	2 (2008, 2018)	3 (1997, 2003, 2009)	1 (1999)	Nil
Bangladesh	1 (2003)	2 (1999, 2005)	1 (1995)	Nil
Afghanistan	1 (2013)	2 (2011, 2015)	Nil	Nil
Sri Lanka	1 (1995)	1 (1993)	Nil	1 (1997)
Nepal	Nil	1 (2021)	1 (1993)	2 (1995, 1999)
Pakistan	Nil	Nil	1 (1997)	2 (1993, 2003)

India also came out on top in almost all the parameters and are the only team to play more than 50 SAFF Cup matches, score 100 goals in the competition, and accumulate over 100 points.

The men in blue are the only team to lose less than ten matches in the competition’s history.

Teams	Matches Played	Wins	Losses	Goal scored	Points
India	57	37	8	100	123
Maldives	47	24	12	95	83
Bangladesh	42	16	14	46	60
Nepal	43	13	23	49	46
Sri Lanka	41	13	21	48	46
Pakistan	36	12	16	32	44
Afghanistan	27	12	11	48	40
Bhutan	24	1	23	13	4

Only India and Maldives have a winning percentage above 50 in the competition’s history. However, Maldives have the best goals-per-game ratio in the competition’s history averaging two goals per game ahead of Afghanistan (no longer a SAFF member) at 1.77 and India at 1.75.

Sunil Chhetri eyes record

The Indian captain has a great goalscoring record in the SAFF Championship but he is not the all-time leading goalscorer in the competition. That honour belongs to Ali Ashfaq of Maldives.

Chhetri though has a chance of taking the record from the great Maldivian striker as he is just five goals behind him in the charts. The Bengaluru FC skipper scored five goals in the competition in 2021 and a repeat of that feat will take him level with Ashfaq.

Rank	Player	Nation	Goals
1	Ali Ashfaq	Maldives	23
2	Sunil Chhetri	India	18
3	Bhaichung Bhutia	India	12
4	Ibrahim Fazeel	Maldives	10
4	Ahmed Thariq	Maldives	10

Chhetri can also add another milestone to his kitty as he aims to become the player with the most number of golden boot titles in the SAFF Championship. Currently, the 37-year-old is tied with Ashfaq and Thariq who both have won the golden boot award twice each.

If Chhetri does score the most number of goals in the 2023 edition, he will become the player with the most golden boots in SAFF Championship history, another feather in his cap.

Growing competition for India

The Blue Tigers, despite their dominance, have been facing a growing challenge from the other members of the SAFF region. They have failed to defend this trophy on the last three occasions and have managed to hold onto their title just twice in history.

The men in blue won back-to-back editions for the first time in 1997 and 1999 and followed the feat in 2009 and 2011.

The positive for India is that their last two successful title defences were achieved on home soil and with home advantage on their side in Bengaluru in 2023, expect India to add to their glorious history in the competition.