2003 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup
The fifth South Asian Football Championship, officially South Asian Football Federation Cup 2003 was held until January 20, 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10. At the tournament eight South Asian nations took part. South Asia Champion 2003 was host Bangladesh for a penalty shoot-out against the Maldives. Defending champion India was tournament medalist. For the first time took part in Bhutan and Afghanistan SAFF Cup. Afghanistan was invited at the request of the Asian Football Confederation. It was in 2002 not yet on the list of participants.
Venue
Bangladesh should already host the South Asia Championship 2001 in October / November 2001. However, these were transferred to the period between 26 January and 5 February 2002 and then moved again because of a FIFA suspension of the Bangladeshi Football Federation BFF on 11 January 2002. In this way, every 2 -yearly tournament in 2001 was skipped. Venue for all tournament games was the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka. It was the first orientation of the SAFF Cup and an international football nations tournament in Bangladesh.