I think it would have been better if, instead of East and West, a separate zone 'South Central Asia' was created with SAARC countries and Central Asian countries, India would have a better chance there.
The idea to merge SAFF teams with Central was discussed few years back if i remember properly... about how the competition would improve drastically for SAFF nations but the complexity in getting that done..
May be we can add one feature where we invite 2 nations in SAFF cup and may be rename as SAFF international cup or something.. that could improve the competition with teams like thailand, malaysia, syria or any mid level african teams invited...
On second thoughts ... merging those two zones will not benefit Central Asian countries, so they won't agree. Alternatively, we may invite Tajikistan, Myanmar in SAFF as 'guests'. But that is a political decision plus probably these two will decline as well ...
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May be we can add one feature where we invite 2 nations in SAFF cup and may be rename as SAFF international cup or something.. that could improve the competition with teams like thailand, malaysia, syria or any mid level african teams invited...
We could get some rally good competition too