Male’, MALDIVES – Maldives has been seeded alongside India as the top seeds in the SAFF Championship draw. As the semifinalists of the SAFF Championship 2009, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be the second seeds and hence placed in a separate group. Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan are unseeded. Football Association of Maldives president, Ali Azim said that a date for the draw ceremony has not been finalised.
“We have not been informed about a date.”
In the Stage one of the draw ceremony, India is placed into group A at position A1. Maldives will be placed into group B at position B1. Group A will begin the tournament on 2nd December 2010. Maldives first match will be on 3rd December 2011 and will play all their group matches at 1830hrs.
In stage 2 of the draw ceremony Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be individually inserted into the “BLUE” draw balls and these “BLUE” draw balls will be placed into one draw bowl labelled as “Country Pot”. Group Position A2 and B2 will be individually inserted into the “RED” draw balls and these “RED” draw balls will be placed into another draw bowl labelled as “Position Pot”. The Draw Master will first pick a “BLUE” draw ball from the “Country Pot” followed by a “RED” draw ball from the “Position Pot”. The Draw Master will pick the last “BLUE” draw ball from the “Country Pot” followed by a “RED” draw ball from the “Position Pot”.
In stage 3 of the draw ceremony, the remaining four countries; Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan will be individually inserted into the “GREEN” draw balls and these “GREEN” draw balls will be placed into one draw bowl labelled as “Country Pot”.
The remaining positions; A3, A4, B3 and B4 to be individually inserted into the “YELLOW” draw balls and these “YELLOW” draw balls will be placed into the draw bowl labelled as “Position Pot”. As per the earlier sequence in Stage 2, the Draw Master shall pick a “GREEN” draw ball from the “Country Pot” and then the “YELLOW” draw ball from the “Position Pot”. The process is repeated until all of the countries are allocated a Group Position.