SAF Games

South Asian Games

The South Asian Games Association logo
Abbreviation	SAG
First event	September 1984 Kathmandu, Nepal
Occur every	2 years
Last event	5–16 February 2016 Guwahati, Shillong, India

The South Asian Games (SAF Games, SAG, or SA games, & formerly known as South Asian Federation Games) are a biennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asian Sports Council (SASC), formed in 1983. At present, SAG are joined by eight members namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.

The first South Asian Games were hosted by Kathmandu, Nepal in 1984 and have since been held every two years except for some occasions. In 2004, it was decided in the 32nd meeting of South Asian Sports Council to rename the games from South Asian Federation Games to South Asian Games as the officials believed the word Federation was diminishing the emphasis on event and acting as a barrier in attracting crowd. These Games are often hyped as the South Asian version of Olympic Games. XII South Asian Games are being held at Guwahati and Shillong from 5 February to 16 February 2016.