New Delhi, Feb 21 (IBNS): Defending champions West Bengal will take on Manipur on the opening day as the 72nd edition of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy kicks-off in Kolkata on Mar 19.
Ten teams who qualified from the preliminary stages have been divided into two groups of five teams each with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals which are to be played on Mar 30.
The final is slated for Apr 1.
All India Football Federation General Secretary Kushal Das wished luck to all the participating teams.
“We are delighted to have the Santosh Trophy being hosted in Kolkata. I wish success to the 10 finalists and look forward to a successful hosting of the prestigious event by the Indian Football Association,” he said.
The groupings are as follows:
Group A: West Bengal, Chandigarh, Manipur, Kerala, Maharashtra.
Group B: Goa, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Karnataka.
The fixtures of the tournament are as follows:
GROUP A
19/03/2018 – Chandigarh vs Kerala
19/03/2018 – Manipur vs Bengal
21/03/2018 – Maharashtra vs Bengal
21/03/2018 – Chandigarh vs Manipur
23/03/2018 – Kerala vs Manipur
23/03/2018 – Maharashtra vs Chandigarh
25/03/2018 – Bengal vs Chandigarh
25/03/2018 – Kerala vs Maharashtra
27/03/2018 – Manipur vs Maharashtra
27/03/2018 – Bengal vs Kerala
GROUP B
20/03/2018 – Odisha vs Punjab
20/03/2018 – Mizoram vs Goa
22/03/2018 – Karnataka vs Goa
22/03/2018 – Odisha vs Mizoram
24/03/2018 – Punjab vs Mizoram
24/03/2018 – Karnataka vs Odisha
26/03/2018 – Goa vs Odisha
26/03/2018 – Punjab vs Karnataka
28/03/2018 – Mizoram vs Karnataka
28/03/2018 – Goa vs Punjab
SEMI-FINALS
30/03/2018 – Winner Group A vs Runners-Up Group B
30/03/2018 – Winner Group B vs Runners-Up Group A
FINAL
01/04/2018 – Winner Semi-Final 1 vs Winner Semi-Final 2
The fixtures can also be found on: https://www.the-aiff.com/upcoming-fixtures.htm?tnmt_id=116
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
