Meghalaya will be involved in the very first match of the 77th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2023-24 final round when they take on Services on February 21.
The final round will be held in Itanagar and will conclude on March 9. All the matches will take place in the Arunachal Pradesh capital’s Golden Jubilee Stadium.
The hosts, defending champions Karnataka and finalists from the 76th edition Meghalaya automatically qualified for the final round. Another nine teams from the preliminaries join them. They are Goa, Delhi, Manipur, Assam, Services, Maharashtra, Kerala, Mizoram and Railways.
The draw for the final round was held in November where the 12 teams were divided into two groups of six.
Second place in 2023 was a huge moment for Meghalaya, which had never gone so far in the national tournament organised by the All India Football Federation.
Meghalaya will be hoping to recreate their sensational run into the final last year.
The new format for the tournament will see an expanded knockout stage, with the top four teams from each group progressing to the quarterfinals.
The semifinals will take place on March 7, before the final on March 9.
