Sri Vijaya Puram, Aug. 19: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands will compete in Tier 2 of the Dr Talimeren Ao Junior Girls’ National Football Championship 2026-27, where the team has been drawn in Group B alongside Telangana, Goa, Pondicherry and Arunachal Pradesh.
The 2026-27 edition of the championship will be held from September 10 to October 7, 2026, across two venues in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
While Tier 1 matches will be hosted in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, Tier 2 of the competition, featuring Andaman and Nicobar, will be played at the RK Ashram Ground in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh.
The Tier 2 competition is scheduled to run from September 15 to October 7, 2026.
A total of 33 State Association teams will participate in the championship across the two tiers. Tier 1 will comprise 15 teams, while Tier 2 will feature 18 teams.
In Tier 2, the 18 participating teams have been divided into four groups, comprising two groups of five teams each and two groups of four teams each.
Andaman and Nicobar have been placed in Group B, which consists of:
- Telangana
- Goa
- Andaman and Nicobar
- Pondicherry
- Arunachal Pradesh
The group winners will progress directly to the semifinals, making the group-stage matches crucial for every participating side.
The other Tier 2 groups include Chandigarh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Tripura and the Sports Authority of India in Group A. Group C consists of Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland, while Group D features Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh.
The competition follows a promotion and relegation structure between the two tiers.
For the 2026–27 season, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have been promoted to Tier 1 after competing in Tier 2 during the previous season. They replace Goa and Arunachal Pradesh, which were relegated from Tier 1 and will now compete in Tier 2.
Tier 1 will be held in Anantapur from September 10 to September 25. The venue will host the top-tier competition for the third consecutive season.
The 15 teams in Tier 1 have been divided into three groups of four teams and one group of three teams. Defending champions Manipur have been placed in Group A along with Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala.
West Bengal, runners-up in the previous edition, have been drawn in Group B alongside Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
Delhi, Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand form Group C, while Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been placed in Group D.
Manipur enter the new season as defending champions after defeating West Bengal 9-0 in the final of the previous edition, which was also held in Anantapur.
For the Andaman and Nicobar junior girls’ football team, the upcoming edition presents an opportunity to compete against four other sides in Group B and seek progression to the semifinals.
With only the group winners advancing directly to the last four, the Island team will need to finish at the top of its group to remain in contention for the championship.
The Tier 2 matches involving Andaman and Nicobar are scheduled to begin as part of the Narainpur leg of the Dr Talimeren Ao Junior Girls’ National Football Championship, which runs from September 15 to October 7.
