The Santosh Trophy is India's most prestigious football tournament. It uses a cluster format where states are divided into groups and play each other. The winner of each cluster advances to the pre-quarterfinals. From there, 8 teams advance to the quarterfinals where they join last year's top 4 teams. The quarterfinals use a league system to determine the 4 semi-finalists, who then play to decide the winner. The document provides details on the tournament structure and hopes Mizoram qualifies.

1. Santosh Trophy
India’s Most Prestigious Football Tournament
A brief look at the
tournament format & structure

2. Well, let’s face it.
Nobody in India gives a damn about Santosh Trophy.
The whole country cheered for foreign teams at the
just concluded World Cup… and yet when it comes
to our own players, our own tournament…
Nobody cares.
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3. There is no media coverage at all…
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4. Hence a few cyber warriors promoted this
tournament out of their own free will (and time).
#SantoshTrophy
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5. Yet most newspapers don’t even report the score.
And the few journalists who do, make mistakes.
Some renowned National newspapers even called the
Pre Quarter Finals stage as “Round of 16”!
Yeah, its usually 16 teams at this stage for other
tournaments, but NOT in the case of
Santosh Trophy.
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6. Here’s how it works - Cluster
Last year’s winner Goa, runners up West Bengal, and semi finalists Services & Tamilnadu
do not take part in the initial stages. The rest of the Indian states are divided into 8 clusters
Cluster 1: Karnataka | Meghalaya | Jharkhand
Cluster 2: Maharashtra | Chandigarh | Tripura | Andhra Pradesh
Cluster 3: Punjab | Pondicherry | Gujarat | Nagaland
Cluster 4: Manipur | Rajasthan | Jammu & Kashmir
Cluster 5: Delhi | Arunachal Pradesh | Madhya Pradesh | Uttar Pradesh
Cluster 6: Haryana | Sikkim | Chhattisgarh
Cluster 7: Kerala | Uttarakhand | Himachal Pradesh | Assam
Cluster 8: Mizoram | Bihar | Railways | Orissa
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7. Here’s how it works. Cluster winners.
The winner of each cluster then proceeds to the pre-quarterfinal rounds. Mizoram had the
same points and goal difference as Railways. Luckily it had one more “Goal For” than Railways.
Winner of cluster 1: Karnataka
Winner of cluster 2: Maharashtra
Winner of cluster 3: Punjab
Winner of cluster 4: Manipur
Winner of cluster 5: Delhi
Winner of cluster 6: Chhattisgarh
Winner of cluster 7: Kerala
Winner of cluster 8: Mizoram
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8. Here’s how it works. Pre-Quarterfinals.
Now the winner of each cluster plays against the adjacent cluster winner. For example, winner
of cluster 1 versus winner of cluster 2, and so on. This is a knock-out format.
Winner of cluster 1: Karnataka
Vs. Karnataka
Winner of cluster 2: Maharashtra
Winner of cluster 3: Punjab So you can see for yourself
that Pre-Quarters stage do
Vs. Punjab not even have 16 teams
Winner of cluster 4: Manipur playing. Only 12 teams are
left in the tournament, out
Winner of cluster 5: Delhi of which only 8 teams are
Vs. Delhi playing this round.
Winner of cluster 6: Chhattisgarh
Winner of cluster 7: Kerala
Vs. Mizoram
Winner of cluster 8: Mizoram
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9. Here’s how it works. Quarter Finals.
So now the four winners of the Pre Quarters stage Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab and Mizoram
move to the Quarter Finals stage and meet the other four teams (last year’s winners)
Tamilnadu, Services, West Bengal and Goa. They are equally distributed to two pools.
Group A Group B
Goa West Bengal
Services Tamilnadu
Karnataka Delhi
Punjab Mizoram
The matches will follow the league system.
First QF match starts tomorrow (July 28, 2010).
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10. Here’s how it works. Semi Finals and Finals.
After this, it is simple.
Hopefully, Mizoram!
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11. Hope that information was helpful.
Cheers, and all the best to all the qualifying teams!
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