Junior National Women's Football: Inaugural ceremony may shift to DTRP

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam Football Association has been facing a lot of trouble to prepare the ground for the Junior (U-17) National Women's Football Championship because of uninterrupted rain which the city is witnessing for the last several days. The uninterrupted rain also forced the association to think of an alternative venue for the inaugural ceremony.

Talking to The Sentinel the secretary of the Assam Football Association Hemendra Nath Brahma said, "The rain made the ground condition very poor and as more rain is forecasted by the Indian Meteorological Department so we are thinking of keeping ready one alternative venue for the inaugural ceremony."

Initially the Assam Football Association had planned to host the inaugural ceremony either at the Nehru Stadium or SAI Sports Complex. But if rain continues it would be difficult to host as planned earlier.

Brahma added. "If weather permits then we will go as per our earlier plan. Otherwise the function is likely to be shifted to the Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium (DTRP). The final decision will be taken tomorrow."

He also said that there is no possibility to reschedule the tournament as already several teams had arrived in the city to take part in the meet. It may be mentioned here that till this evening 8 teams landed in the city.

Meanwhile five venues would be used to host the event which are Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium, SAI Sports complex, LNIPE at Sonapur and Dimakuchi. On the inaugural day there will be altogether four matches. SAI Sports complex will host two games- Telangana vs Delhi and Bihar vs Meghalaya. On the other hand remaining two matches- Tripura vs Maharashtra and Chandigarh vs Odisha-will be held at the LNIPE

Assam will play their group league matches at Dimakuchi and will start their campaign against Poducherry on June 21. Gujarat and Haryana will be their next two opponents.

The groups of the competition are as follows- GROUP A- Manipur, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh. GROUP B – Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka. GROUP C- Telangana, Bihar, Meghalaya, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh GROUP D- Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa. GROUP E- Nagaland, Ladakh, Punjab, Kerala. GROUP F- Tripura, Chandigarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Dadra & Nagar Haveli. GROUP G- Assam, Haryana, Puducherry, Gujarat. GROUP H- Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan.

Also Read: Junior Women's National Football: Assam team announced

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