Services on Sunday retained the Santosh Trophy National Football Championships title after beating hosts Maharashtra 2-1 in the summit clash.
- This was the fifth triumph for Services.
- The runners-up received a prize of Rs. 3 lakhs.
About Santosh Trophy:
- Santosh Trophy is an annual Indian football tournament which is contested by states and government institutions.
- The first winners were Bengal, who also lead the all-time winners list with 31 titles to date.
- The tournament first began in 1941, and was the premier football competition in the country before the National Football League started in the year 1996.
- The trophy as named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh, which is now in Bangladesh, who had been the President of the Indian Football Association, the football organisation of Bengal and the donators of the trophy.
- The runners-up trophy, Kamla Gupta Trophy, was also donated by the IFA.
- The third place teams receive the Sampangi Cup which was presented by the Mysore Football Association (now KSFA) in 1952, in the memory of Sampangi, a renowned footballer from Mysore.
About Services Team:
Services Team
- The Services football team is an Indian football team representing the Indian defence services in the Santosh Trophy.
- They have appeared in the Santosh Trophy finals 9 times, and have won the trophy four times, 1st in 1960-61, second in 2012, third in 2013 and fourth in 2015 – Services beat Punjab by 5-4 in Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana.
