President mr kalyan chaubey

The AIFF Acting Secretary General: Former champions Goa, Services and Kerala were placed in the same group in the draw for the Final Round of the 77th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2023-24, which was conducted at the Football House here on Thursday.

These three along with last year's finalists Meghalaya, hosts Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are placed in Group A while Group B includes defending champion Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Manipur, Mizoram and Railways for the event that has tentatively been fixed from February 21 to March 9, 2024.

The 12 teams that had qualified for the final round were divided into two groups of six each. The participants include six group stage winners (Goa, Delhi, Manipur, Assam, Services and Maharashtra), three best second-placed teams (Kerala, Mizoram and Railways), and three automatic qualifiers -- hosts Arunachal Pradesh, last season's champions Karnataka and finalists Meghalaya.