East Bengal FC Wins SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025

East Bengal FC has won the title of the first SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025 with a brilliant 3-0 victory against Nepal’s APF. The final of this competition was held at Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal.

• East Bengal FC won the title of the first SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025 with a brilliant 3-0 victory against host Nepal’s APF (Armed Police Force) in the final held on December 20, 2025, at Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• With this victory, East Bengal has become the first Indian women’s club to win an international tournament.
• Anthony Andrews’ team scored 14 goals in their five matches during the tournament and did not concede a single goal.
• The team defeated Bhutan’s Transport United FC 4-0 (December 8), Pakistan’s Karachi City FC 2-0 (December 11), and Bangladesh’s Nasreen Sports Academy 7-0 (December 14), before playing a 0-0 draw with Nepal’s APF FC in the last group-stage match (December 17).

Top scorers

• Ugandan striker and two-time IWL top-scorer Fazila Ikwaput scored two goals, while India international player Shilky Devi Hemam scored one goal to complete a brilliant campaign for the Moshal Girls.
• This was the first edition of the women’s football competition, featuring some of South Asia’s top teams. All matches were played in Kathmandu.
• East Bengal remained unbeaten throughout the tournament, winning four games and drawing just one. They did not concede a single goal in five matches.
• The Kolkata giants coached by Anthony Andrews topped the five-team group stage. They defeated Bhutan’s Transport United 4-0 in their first game, followed by a 2-0 win over Pakistani champions Karachi City.

About the SAFF Women’s Club Championship

• The 2025 SAFF Women’s Club Championship, known as the Vatsalya SAFF Women’s Club Championship Nepal 2025 for sponsorship reasons, was the first edition of the SAFF Women’s Club Championship.
• It is an international women’s club football competition among leading clubs of South Asia. It is organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). Five teams from the region competed in Kathmandu from December 5 to December 20, 2025.

About SAFF

• The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) was formed in 1997, and it is a regional subsidiary body of the Asian Football Confederation. The association’s members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
• In 2000, it expanded to seven members with the inclusion of Bhutan. Afghanistan joined in 2005, but in 2015, it left to join the newly formed Central Asian Football Association.
• Its first president was India’s P. P. Lakshmanan from 1997–2001.