PTI
KOCHI: Robbed of its sheen by the AIFF’s decision to bar the I-League players from playing in the tournament, it will be a challenge for the organisers to entice the crowd to the stadium when the quarter-finals of 67th Santosh Trophy kick off on Friday.
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The response was lukewarm when India played Palestine in an international friendly recently, and it remained pretty much the same in the pre-quarterfinals of the event, once considered the country’s premier football tournament.
Traditional heavyweights Bengal, Goa, Manipur and Maharashtra will again enter the tournament as favourites.
The quarter-final rounds, comprising 16 teams, would be played simultaneously here and in Kollam.
The teams have been divided into four groups and the winner of each group will advance to the semi-finals, both of which are scheduled to be played here on February 28 and March 1 respectively.
Defending champions Services, who were seeded directly into the quarter-final round, have been clubbed with Railways, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa in Group A. Services play their first match against Railways on February 23 in Kochi.
Meanwhile, 31-time champions Bengal, who qualified as the second team from the qualifiers, will play their Group D matches in Kollam. Punjab, Karnataka and Manipur are the other three teams in the Group.
Group B consists of runners-up Tamil Nadu, four-time crowners Goa along with Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Tamil Nadu play their first match on February 22 against Goa in Kollam. Goa will play Maharashtra on February 24 and Jharkhand on January 26.
Group C will see Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and hosts Kerala battle for a semi-final spot, in Kochi.
The final is scheduled to be played on March 3 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
