South Asian Games also known as SAF are a bi-annual sports event held among the athletes from South Asia. South Asian Sports Council (SASC) is the key administrator of these games. The SACS was formed in 1983. At present, there are eight members in the SAF namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Ancient Olympic Games is an information providing site, modernized to bring about the information of South Asian Games and other major international competitions.
The SAF Games came into being with the recognition that sports are an essential tool to empower the SAARC movement. It was then decided that a sports organization must be necessarily organized for the countries located in South Asia and this must be recognized by the Olympic Council of Asia. The idea was discussed by officials of the countries in South Asia and decision was then taken to form the South Asia Sports Federation.
The first SAF Games were then held in 1984 and it was hosted by Kathmandu. All the member-countries except Afghanistan send their young sportsmen to show their sporting skills on this new platform.
From the success of the first SAF Games, the game goes on. The 2010 South Asian Games, formally the 11th SAF Games, scheduled to take place from January 29 to February 8, 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the history of SAF Games, this will be the third time that the Bangladeshi capital hosts the Games. The 11th edition of SAF Games is also expected to be the largest sporting event ever happened in the history of Bangladesh.
Initially, the 11th South Asian Games were supposed to take place in November 2009. However, the host country, Bangladesh, came across stumbling block due to general elections. So, the South Asian Association Council (SAOC) held the 39th Executive Meeting and planned against hosting the Games in 2009, thus rescheduling the timing of the games to the early 2010.