Shillong, Oct 25: The draw for the final round of the Santosh Trophy took place in New Delhi today, with Meghalaya, defending champions Services and three other teams featuring in Group A.
The final round will be hosted by Mizoram and will run from 10th to 23rd January, the All India Football Federation informed today.
Meghalaya, Services, Delhi, Jharkhand and one team from the Southern Zone make up Group A. Group B consists of West Bengal, Punjab, Goa, Mizoram and one more team from the Southern Zone. The Southern Zone will hold its qualifiers from 5th November.
Meghalaya will play their first match on 12th January against Jharkhand.
It’s only within the last decade that Services have come to be such a force in the Santosh Trophy, winning the national title five times since 2011-12. Last season they roundly defeated Meghalaya 5-0 in the group stage.
Meghalaya qualified for the final round this year by topping Group B with two wins in two games.
Prior to the start of the qualifiers it had already been decided that the final round would take place in one of the states from the North East Zone that made it through the qualifiers and Mizoram thus has the honour of hosting the event.
Meghalaya group fixtures:
vs Jharkhand, 12th January
vs Delhi, 14th January
vs South Zone team, 16th January
vs Services, 18th January
(File photo)
