The 2005–06 Santosh Trophy (known as the 60th Air India Express Santosh Trophy 2005–06 for sponsorship reasons) was the 60th edition of the Santosh Trophy. The tournament was held from 4 to 21 November 2005 in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

won the Santosh Trophy 2005–06 for the fourth time after defeating Maharashtra in the 2005 final at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

after 15 years. Host Kerala claimed third spot after defeating Punjab.

Teams

Automatically qualified to the group stage

30 States / UT teams of India along with Services and Railways with total of 32 teams participated in the tournament The defending champions

, runners-up

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

along with last year's losing semi-finalists

Services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

and

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

receive automatic qualification into the Quarter-final stage.

Qualification round entry

Stadiums and locations

Qualifying rounds

Qualifying round held from 4 to 10 November at the venues Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram and

Municipal Corporation Stadium, Kozhikode The EMS Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Kozhikode, Kerala, India. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium is currently home of I-League side Gokulam Kerala FC, together with Indian Women's League side Gokulam Keral ...

. 28 teams participated in qualifying rounds for Quarter final berth.

Cluster I - Calicut

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Cluster II - Thiruvananthapuram

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Cluster III - Thiruvananthapuram

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Cluster IV - Calicut

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Cluster V - Thiruvananthapuram

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Cluster VI - Calicut

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Cluster VII - Calicut

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Cluster VIII -Thiruvananthapuram

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Quarterfinal League

Quarterfinal rounds held from 11 to 17 November at the venue

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi The Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, locally known as Kaloor Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kochi, Kerala, India. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 spectators. For Indian Super League matches it is restricted to 39,000. The ...

. Cheer girls, helicopter fly, sky diving, cultural programmes and mass drill was held to the kick-off of the main leg of the 60th Air India Express-Santosh Trophy national football tournament at Kochi on 11 November 2005. 4500 students from 25 schools and three colleges in the City lined up for mass drills, folk dances, traditional art forms while another 1000 students conducted special balloon display.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Awards

Best Player: Nicholas Rodrigues

Statistics

Prizes

The

Kerala Chief Minister The chief minister of Kerala is the chief executive of the Indian state of Kerala. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Fol ...

Oommen Chandy Oommen Chandy, , (born 31 October 1943) is an Indian politician and statesman who served as the Chief Minister of Kerala for two terms, from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2016. He was also Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislati ...

gave away the trophies. Besides the top prize and a cheque of Rs. 5 lakhs, the winning team also received Rs. 1 lakh announced by the Goa Sports Minister, Pandurang Madkikar .

Top scorers

Controversy

In a Group D match between Goa and Manipur on 17 November 2005, the referee Shaji C. Kurian allowed Goa to restart the game even as most of the Manipur players were celebrating Tomba Singh's goal in the 87th minute from a free kick. With the Manipur players unsettled for restart,

Climax Lawrence Climax Lourenco Lawrence (born 16 January 1979) is a retired Indian professional football midfielder. He last played for FC Bardez in the Goa Professional League in 2017. National team In 2002, he was called to the India national football te ...

rode on a break from the right and scored past Manipur goalkeeper Ingobi Singh. The Manipuri players argued with referee Kurian, disputing the restart. Police was called in due to be some shoving and pushing between players and there was some argument between the Manipur players and the local police. Game has only resumed after Manipur's coach Ekendra Singh and manager Dinamani Singh entered the ground and asked Manipur players to finish off the game. Even though the match ended in a tie, Goa advanced to the semifinals with their superior goal difference in Group D. Immediately after the incident, the Manipur team manager lodged a complaint contending violation of Rule No. 8 of the Laws of the Game, and Article No. 15 of the Regulation of the Championship. The

All Manipur Football Association All Manipur Football Association (AMFA) is the state governing body of football in Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nag ...

decided to boycott the national Under-19 and Under-14 football tournaments organized by the All India Football Federation in protest against a referee's decision People of Manipur gave a rousing welcome to the players and officials of the State team which participated in the 60th Air India Express Santosh trophy football Tournament on their arrival at Imphal. To protest the biased decision of the referee, Manipur Students Federation had organised only sit-in-protest demonstration and imposed a 22-hour general strike on the day the final match. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on 18 December 2005 decided to retain Goa as the champions of the Santosh Trophy rejecting Manipur's appeal, which had asked the AIFF to strip the champions of the title.

Telecast

Zee Sports Sony Sports Network, formerly Sony Pictures Sports Network, and also known as Sony TEN, is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by Culver Max Entertainment (formerly Sony Pictures Networks India). The original TEN Sports cha ...

telecasted the 16 matches from the quarterfinals onwards live. John Helm and Russell Osman have been hired as commentators. The telecast packages included preview and review shows, half time match analysis. Music and dance performances by renowned bands during the half time and in between the two matches. Special performance by Zebra's was there to entertain the crowds before the start of each match. Zee provided soccer fans with the latest team news, match scores, statistics and player profiles, as well as exclusive player interviews and photo galleries.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santosh Trophy 2005-06 2005-06 2005–06 in Indian football 2005–06 domestic association football cups