Shillong, Jan 21: The 79th Senior Men’s National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2025-26 is all set to begin with Assam hosting it for the seventh time in its history. The matches will be streamed live on FIFA+.
Assam hosted this tournament in Nowgong (now Nagaon) for the first time in 1959-60 and then again in 1969-70. In between, four editions were organised in Guwahati. Now again, the football fraternity will have the opportunity of witnessing some of the finest exponents and aspirants of the country in remote Dhakuakhana and Silapathar.
The latter will host Meghalaya’s matches in Group B. Coached by the experienced Khlain Pyrkhat Syiemlieh, Meghalaya will play their first fixture against Odisha on Thursday.
Except for last year’s champions West Bengal, runners-up Kerala and this year’s hosts, all state teams were divided into nine groups for the qualifying rounds, with the group winners qualifying to play in the final rounds. The 12 teams in the final round have been divided into two groups of six teams each.
Group A consists of Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu, while Group B has Railways, Services, Kerala, Punjab, Meghalaya and Odisha.
The top four teams will advance to the knock-out quarterfinals to be held on 2nd and 3rd February. The two semifinals are billed for 5th February with the grand final set for 8th February.
In Group A, only Bengal, 33-time champions and 14-time runners-up, are the only team in the group to have won the Santosh Trophy. Tamil Nadu have been the runners-up twice. Assam, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand are yet to reach the final.
Group B is packed with four former champions and one runner-up. Punjab have won it eight times and has been runners-up eight times. Kerala have a seven and nine record in terms of wins and runners-up performances. Services have won it seven times and have been runners-up five times. Railways have won it thrice and have been runners-up six times. Meghalaya were the runners-up once, while Odisha are the only team not to have gone all the way to the final.
In the group stage, Punjab emerged as the Group A winners with an all-win record with Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in their group. Uttarakhand topped Group B, defeating Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh to bag all 9 points.
Railways got 7 points after their draw against Delhi and full points against Jharkhand and Bihar to top Group C. Nagaland defeated Manipur and Mizoram and were held to a draw by Tripura to also bag 7 points and top Group D.
Meghalaya defeated Arunachal Pradesh, but lost to Sikkim in the three-team Group E and qualified on the basis of more head-to-head goals scored.
Odisha won all three Group F games with victories over Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to qualify. Similarly, Tamil Nadu topped Group G with 9 points, defeating Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar.
Services topped a tough Group H with wins over Goa, Karnataka and Lakshadweep to come through with 9 points.
Rajasthan topped Group I with 7 points with a draw against Gujarat and wins over Maharashtra and Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu (DNHDD).
Meghalaya thus qualified with the fewest points of any final round team.
Obviously, the two groups will be hotly contested, with the top four making the knock-out rounds. The Santosh Trophy has witnessed some absolutely thrilling and nail-biting contests in previous years and this season too appears to be no different.
(Representative photo)
