The draw for the 79th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy 2025–26 Final Round, which will be hosted in Dhakuakhana and Silapathar in Assam, was conducted at the Football House in New Delhi on Wednesday, December 31, 2025.
The Final Round will kick off on January 21, 2026, with 12 teams divided into two groups of six each.
Hosts Assam, along with defending champions West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Rajasthan, have been drawn in Group A, while Kerala, Services, Punjab, Odisha, Railways and Meghalaya have been placed in Group B.
Nagaland, which qualified for the Santosh Trophy Final Round for the first time, has been placed in Group A and will begin its campaign against defending champions West Bengal on January 21. Nagaland had earlier defeated Manipur and Mizoram and played out a draw against Tripura in the qualifiers.
Nagaland will face hosts Assam on January 23, Tamil Nadu on January 25, Uttarakhand on January 28 and Rajasthan on January 30.
Assam, West Bengal and Kerala qualified for the Final Round by virtue of their status as hosts, defending champions and runners-up respectively, while the remaining nine teams topped their respective groups in the preceding stage.
The top four teams from each group will advance to the knockout stages. The quarter-finals will be played on February 2 and 3, the semi-finals on February 5, and the final on February 8.
79th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy 2025–26 Final Round Draw
Group A: Assam (hosts), West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Rajasthan
Group B: Kerala, Services, Punjab, Odisha, Railways, Meghalaya
Full fixtures
(With AIFF inputs)