Assam is all set to conduct Junior (U-17) Women’s National Football Championship (NFC) beginning today, 18th of June, across 5 venues in and around Guwahati.
The locations are Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium (IGAS), SAI New Field at Paltan Bazar, Nehru Stadium, LNIPE at Sonapur and Dimakuchi Stadium in Udalguri district.
The tourney will wind up with the final set to be organized at IGAS in Guwahati on 4th of July.
Initially Assam Football Association (AFA) had planned to organize the inaugural ceremony either at Nehru Stadium or SAI Sports Complex however continuous rain has kept AFA alert and the association is keeping alternate venues ready if need be.
Nevertheless, with most of the competing teams already arriving in Guwahati there is no possibility of reprogramming the competition.
The 34 teams have been divided into 8 groups, with Group C and F having 5 teams each, whilst other 6 have 4 each.
There will be round robin league in each group with the group leaders making the knockout stage for the quarter-finals.
All the games will be played during the day at 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM whilst the matches at Dimakuchi will be played under lights.
The Groups:
A: Manipur, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.
B: Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.
C: Telangana, Bihar, Meghalaya, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
D: Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Goa.
E: Nagaland, Ladakh, Punjab and Kerala.
F: Tripura, Chandigarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
G: Assam, Haryana, Puducherry and Gujarat.
H: Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.
