Assam to host first senior women’s national championship since 2011

In a major boost to women’s football in India, the senior women’s national championship will be taking place for the first time since 2011.

This will be the 20th edition and it will be hosted by Assam from April 27-May 11. The districts of Dibrugarh and Golaghat will be the venues.

Despite being ranked 51st among 175 nations in the FIFA Rankings, our women footballers hardly get any competition at domestic level. The absence of a senior national championship for the last three years has been another major setback.

The revival of the woman’s version of the Santosh Trophy will give our girls the much-needed practice with defending champions Orissa looking to retain the crown.

Here are the groups

Group A: Manipur, Railways, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra

Group B: Orissa, Karnataka, Goa, Mizoram, and Gujarat

Group C: West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Bihar, Tripura

Group D: Jharkhand, Assam, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand