Shillong, Oct 3: Meghalaya have been drawn in Group D of the men’s National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2024-25 preliminary stage, it was announced on the All India Football Federation website yesterday.
The group stage matches will take place in November and the final round in December.
Group D consists of Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim and Tripura. The other four North East states (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland) are in Group E.
The winners of the nine groups plus the two finalists from 2023-24 (Services and Goa) will contest the final round along with hosts Telangana.
The AIFF appears to have tinkered with the format once again. Last year and 2022-23 saw groups comprising teams drawn from around the country, while this year it looks more or less like the regional format has been reintroduced.
Meghalaya didn’t have a great 2023-24, finishing winless and fifth out of six teams in Group A. That followed on from their sensational runners-up performance in 2022-23 when they lost the final to Karnataka.
Having the group stage in November might make things tricky for Meghalaya, though, as the 4th Meghalaya State League is supposed to start at the end of this month.
Santosh Trophy 2024-25 groupings:
Group A: Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab
Group B: Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi
Group C: Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bengal, Bihar
Group D: Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Tripura
Group E: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram
Group F: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha
Group G: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Andaman & Nicobar
Group H: Kerala, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep, Railways
Group I: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Rajasthan