The National Women’s Football team departed this evening to Goa, India, to compete in the upcoming Women’s SAFF Championship.

The team head coached by Mohamed Sobah, had wrapped up its training sessions this Friday. 

Team Maldives will camp at Marago, the commercial capital of the state of Goa. The championship, set to take place at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, is scheduled to kick off this Monday, on the Day of Hajj.

Maldives is grouped with the hosts India, and winners of the past two championships, Bangladesh, in group B. 

Maldives will take on team India on the opening day. The game will kick off at 19:00 local time. The second game of the group will see Maldives against defending champions Bangladesh on Thursday evening.

The top two among the three will play the semifinals, against the respective winners and runner-up from Group A, which consists of Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, on June 3rd.

Maldives, ranked 167th in the FIFA Women’s Ranking, is currently 98 places below India. The host nation of this SAFF Championship is also the most successful; they have won gold in five out of the seven editions of the Women’s SAFF Championships.