By Mark Baber
November 10 – The 2014 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship kicks off on Tuesday in Islamabad featuring eight women’s national teams including hosts Pakistan, arch-rivals India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Organisers promise that this edition of the championship, founded in 2010, will be held under conditions of strict security following a recent spate of terrorist attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, including the November 2 suicide attack on the Wagah border post which killed 60 people.
After that attack Pakistan Football Federation secretary Ahmed Yar Lodhi vowed the event would still go ahead, saying; “We have high level security in place and hope that the event will remove all doubts over our hosting a top event like this.”
The Afghan team has already arrived in Islamabad and their team includes nine players from Iran, Europe and the US.
The 29-member Bangladesh contingent, which has had the benefit of a month’s intensive training under Japanese coach Norio Tsukitate, previously coach of Nagoya Grampus and the Guam national team, will be arriving today.
The Indian team will be hoping to defend the trophy which they won in the previous two editions of the tournament in 2010 and 2012 – on both of which occasions they met Nepal in the final.
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