Sri Lanka has withdrawn their participation from the under 18 SAFF Championship 2017, which is expected to kick off 12 days from today on 18th September in Bhutan.

This year’s competition is the second version of the tournament. Unlike previous times only six nations took part in the competition among the seven SAFF membership nations. Pakistan was the only side did not take part.

The reason behind Sri Lanka’s withdrawal is yet to be known. Sri Lanka under 16 team also was not able to advance to the semi final round as they lost their both games in the group stage.

With this new twist in the under 18 SAFF Championship, Nepal and Maldives secures the semi final spot with out any matches played. Sri Lanka was grouped with Nepal and Maldives in group B.

Maldives under 16 team went to their under 15 SAFF Championship with the target of reaching to semi final. However they were not able to reach their target as they lost their both games in the group stage.

Maldives under 19 team is also preparing at their best with the hope to reach semi final in the tournament. Speaking to PSM Sports, under 19 head coach, Ihsan said that their first target is to reach semi final.

With this act from Sri Lanka, Maldives has already reached their target of semi final.