Wikipedia - Santosh Trophy

The National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy, due to ties with FIFA (from 2024–25), also known as the FIFA Santosh Trophy, or simply Santosh Trophy, is an inter-state national football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the sport's governing body in India. Before the launch of the first national club league, the National Football League in 1996, the Santosh Trophy was considered the top domestic tournament in India. Many players who have represented India internationally have played and gained honour while playing in the Santosh Trophy. The tournament is held every year with eligible teams who are divided into zones, must play in the qualifying round and can progress into the tournament proper. The current champions are Karnataka, who won their title after 54 years during the 2022–23 edition. This was the first trophy for Karnataka, which had previously won four times as the princely state of Mysore, after 1968-69.

The tournament was started in 1941 by the Indian Football Association (IFA), which was the then de facto governing body of football in India. It was named after the former president of the IFA, Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, the Maharaja of Santosh who had died aged 61 in 1939. The IFA later donated the Santosh Trophy to the AIFF, soon after its formation as the sport's official governing body in India, and since then AIFF has been organising the tournament. The trophy for the runner-up, Kamala Gupta Trophy, was also donated by the then president of IFA, Dr. S.K. Gupta, and it was named in honour of his wife. The third-place trophy, Sampangi Cup, was donated by the Karnataka State Football Association (then Mysore Football Association) and was named so in the memory of a renowned footballer, Sampangi, who was from Mysore. Until 2018, the tournament was organised as an individual competition, but since 2021, the AIFF rebranded it as the men's senior tier of National Football Championship for the regional teams of various age groups. In September 2022, it was announced that the tournament will be organized on zonal basis.

**Indiens - Santosh Trophy**

Indiens främsta fotbollsturnering, Santosh Trophy, är en årlig tävling mellan delstater och unionsterritorier i landet. Turneringen grundades 1941 och är uppkallad efter den indiska fotbollslegenden Bartaman Bose Santosh.

Santosh Trophy hålls vanligtvis i januari eller februari varje år och lockar till sig toppfotbollsspelare från hela Indien. Turneringen spelas i en utslagsomgång, där lagen är indelade i åtta grupper baserat på deras geografiska läge. De två bästa lagen från varje grupp går vidare till slutspelet.

Finalen i Santosh Trophy är en av de mest eftertraktade evenemangen i den indiska fotbollskalendern och spelas vanligtvis på ett stort fotbollsstadion i Delhi eller Kolkata. Vinnaren av Santosh Trophy tilldelas Santosh Trophy och får representera Indien vid många internationella fotbollstävlingar, såsom AFC Asian Cup och SAFF Championship.

Santosh Trophy har spelat en avgörande roll för att utveckla fotboll i Indien och har producerat många av landets främsta spelare, inklusive Sunil Chhetri, Bhaichung Bhutia och IM Vijayan. Turneringen är också en viktig plattform för unga spelare att visa upp sin talang och öka sina chanser att få en karriär inom professionell fotboll.