27th Senior Women National Football Championship to kick-off from Saturday

New Delhi [India], March 6 : The 27th edition of the Senior Women's National Football Championship will get underway on Saturday.
Thirty-one teams have been divided into six groups in the qualifying round, which will be played across six different venues of the country, stated a press release from the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
The final round of the competition will have a total of 12 teams -- six group winners, five best runners-up, and the Railways, who have been given direct entry. The 12 teams will be divided into two groups of six each. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.
Manipur is the record 21-time champions and has also won the previous three editions of the Senior Women's National Football Championship, most recently, edging Railways on penalties in the 2021-22 final in Kerala.
The groups and venues of the qualifying round of the 27th Senior Women's National Football Championship are as follows:
GROUP I - GNDU Sports Complex, Amritsar, Punjab
Punjab, Telangana, Sikkim and Haryana.
GROUP II - IGIS Complex, Haldwani/Rudrapur, Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram.
GROUP III - Navelim and Benaulim, South Goa, Goa
Goa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
GROUP IV - Pant Stadium, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.
GROUP V - Sports Ground, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
GROUP VI - Bangalore Football Stadium, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Karnataka, Bihar, Manipur, Gujarat and Assam.