2023 SAFF U-16 Championship

The 2023 SAFF U-16 Championship was the 8th edition of the SAFF U-16 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-17 national teams organized by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). Its was played from 2–10 September 2023 in Thimphu, Bhutan.

India are the defending champions, who won their fifth title in 2023 by defeating Bangladesh in the final. Pakistan were given the fair play award.

Venue
All matches were held at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Teams
Sri Lanka are ineligible for participation as they are suspended by FIFA. Other six SAFF teams are eligible to participate.

Draw
The draw was held in BFF House in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22 July 2023 at 12:00 BST (UTC+6).

Match officials

 * Referees


 * Md. Nasir Uddin
 * Penjor Ugyen
 * Kabin Byanjankar
 * 🇲🇻 Zaheer Hussain
 * 🇮🇳 Senthil N Nathan


 * Assistant referees
 * Sunwar Hem Kumar
 * Madhav Khatri
 * Bikash Sarker
 * 🇵🇰 Raeef Rauf
 * 🇮🇳 B. Nagoorkani

Players eligibility
Players born on or after 1 January 2007 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team has to register a squad of minimum 16 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers.

Group stage
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.
 * Times listed are UTC+06:00 Bhutan Time.
 * Tiebreakers
 * 1) Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 2) Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 3) Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 4) If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
 * 5) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 6) Goals scored in all group matches;
 * 7) Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
 * 8) Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellots, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
 * 9) Drawing of lots.

Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: