The 58th Edition of the National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy will kick off from tomorrow at Khuman Lampak Main Stadium. The Governor of Manipur, Ved Marwah will open the function as Chief Guest and Chief Minister of Manipur O Ibobi Singh will welcome the participants as the Chairman.

Host team Manipur will meet Himachal Pradesh in the opening match of the tournament. Both teams are from cluster IV, Pondicherry is the third team of the cluster. Himachal Pradesh lost to Manipur by a margin of 7-0 in the last 57th Santosh Trophy's quarterfinal stage at Mumbai. Talking to Manipur Mail, Chandrakumar Sharma, team coach of Himachal Pradesh said his team would play very carefully as they learned from last year landslide defeat. Sharma further said that his team is in a different climatic condition as the their boys usually practice in a cool place. His team will also have to face the pressure of their opponent's home crowds.

While taking to Manipur Mail, Asst Coach Birbal of the Manipur team said his team has the full confidence that they will win as last year. And his boys will enjoy the home crowd's response. All Manipur Football Association (AMFA) is fully prepared for this tournament which will commence from tomorrow.

Earlier, AMFA has announced the list for the referees to conduct the tournament. MK Roy and Assam (from Assam) SK Gupta (Bihar) Kishan Avtar and Rizvan Ul Haq (from Delhi) Dinesh Nair (Gujarat) Benjamin D'Silva(Goa) Walter Pereira (WIFA) Subrata Sarkar and Bishwajit Behra (from IFA) Harbajan Singh (Meghalaya) Ch Lama (Sikkim) A Arjunan (SSCB) S Suresh (Tamil Nadu) Sh Chakraborty (Tripura) SM Balu (Karnataka) SM Balu (Karnataka)VK Dhahiya (Haryana) Shaji Kurian and KK Anilkumar (Kerala) SHA Naqvi (Madhya Pradesh) Khs Saratchandra, W Kullachandra, L Yaima, L Lokendra, L Gokulnanda and L Kulladhaja ( all from Manipur) are on the referee panel.

Seven teams arrived today by road through the National Highway 39 with a tight security cover. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Punjab, Karnataka and Meghalaya are the teams which arrived today. Earlier seven teams had already arrived. Indian captain Baichung Bhutia will join his team Sikkim after the preliminary round league. Speaking to Manipur Mail Sherap Lepcha, team coach cum player of Sikkim said, Baichung is in Maldives as his club Mohan Began went for the AFC Champions League. Baichung will arrive here on October 24 from Maldives and join his team Sikkim. Sherap Lepcha who leads his team as coach cum player played for Mohan Began, East Bengal and Churchill Brother's clubs in National Football League.