Sri Lanka bow out of SAFF U-19 Tourney

By Susil Premalal

The Sri Lanka junior football team failed to advance to the second round of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup Under-19 Football Tournament 2025 after losing both games by huge margins. 

The Sri Lankan junior footballers conceded as many as 13 goals to their opponents as they went down to the defending champions India 0-8 and the last year runners-up Nepal 0-5 in Group ‘B’   

Organised by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) the tournament is played in Yupia, India with the final on May 18.

Although Sri Lanka took steps to include three overseas players of Sri Lankan origin in the junior national team, they were unable to achieve successful results.

“Since this tournament involves schoolchildren, there were various obstacles to gathering them and training as a team. The Sri Lankan team participated in this tournament after a short-term training,” FFSL President Jaswar Umar told the Daily Mirror yesterday.