Pakistan have pulled out of the South Asian Football Federation Championships (SAFF) to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from December 23 to January 3. All India Football Federation General Secretary Kushal Das confirmed that Pakistan has withdrawn from the Championships without giving any reason.Pakistan did not participate in any regional football tournaments in recent times, including the inaugural SAFF Under-16 Championship in Sylhet, the SAFF Under-19 Championship in Nepal, and the AFC Under-21 Championship in Dhaka this year. Das said that the SAFF Championships will be held as scheduled and matches involving Pakistan will be awarded as walkover in the opposition team's favour. In the original schedule, India and Pakistan were clubbed in Group A along with Nepal and Sri Lanka. Group B included Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and defending champions Afghanistan. India have won the tournament six times in the 10 editions so far and they ended as runners-up thrice. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan have won once each.