New Delhi, Mar 7 (IANS: The 27th edition of the Senior Women's National Football Championship will get underway on March 25.

Thirty-one teams have been divided into six groups in the qualifying round, which will be played in six different venues across the country.

The Final Round of the competition will have a total of 12 teams - six group winners, five best runners-up, and the Railways, who have been given direct entry. The 12 teams will be divided into two groups of six each. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, the AIFF said.

Manipur are the record 21-time champions and have also won the previous three editions of the Senior Women's National Football Championship, most recently, edging Railways on penalties in the 2021-22 final in Kerala.

The groups and venues of the qualifying round:

GROUP I - GNDU Sports Complex, Amritsar, Punjab

Punjab, Telangana, Sikkim and Haryana.

GROUP II - IGIS Complex, Haldwani/Rudrapur, Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram.

GROUP III - Navelim and Benaulim, South Goa, Goa

Goa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

GROUP IV - Pant Stadium, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

GROUP V - Sports Ground, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

GROUP VI - Bangalore Football Stadium, Bengaluru, Karnataka

Karnataka, Bihar, Manipur, Gujarat and Assam.