West Bengal placed in Group B of 29th Senior Women’s National Football Championship for Rajmata Jijabai Trophy 2024-25 was conducted at the Football House, on Monday, September 2.
A total of 31 teams – excluding last season’s finalists Manipur and Haryana, who have received a bye to the Final Round – were drawn into seven groups of four and one group of three. The eight best-performing teams, excluding the finalists, from last season’s Final Round are the top seeds for the 2024-25 edition. The top seeded teams – Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Railways, Delhi, Punjab, Odisha, Sikkim, and Jharkhand – were assigned into Groups A to H, respectively.
The eight group winners will join Manipur and Haryana in the Final Round, where they will be drawn into two groups of five teams each. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.
West Bengal have won the tournament twice in 1991-91 and in 1997-97, while finished runners-up 13 times – 1992-92, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2008-09, 2010-11.
Manipur had won the tournament a record 22 times while Tamil Nadu won twice, Odisha and Railways had won once each. Manipur finished runners-up four times, Odisha 5 times, Railways three times, Haryana twice and Kerala once.
Group A:
Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa
Group B:
West Bengal, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar
Group C:
Railways, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam
Group D:
Delhi, Maharashtra, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar
Group E:
Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand
Group F:
Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh
Group G:
Sikkim, Chandigarh, Tripura, Gujarat
Group H:
Jharkhand, Telangana, Mizoram
Picture Courtesy: Social Media
