1968–69 Santosh Trophy

The 1968–69 Santosh Trophy was the 25th edition of the Santosh Trophy, the main State competition for football in India. It was held from 23 February to 29 March 1969 in Bangalore, Karnataka. The home team Mysore beat Bengal 1–0 in the final.

1968–69 Santosh Trophy

Tournament details
Country	India
Dates	23 February – 29 March 1969
Final positions
Champions	Mysore (4th title)
Runners-up	Bengal
← 1967–68 1969–70 → 90 minute matches

Group stage

Delhi v Kerala

23 February 1969	Delhi	3–0[1]	Kerala	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Sri Prasad 10' Bhandari ?', 82'			Referee: Moin-ud-din Hasan

Jammu and Kashmir v Gujarat

24 February 1969	Jammu and Kashmir	6–1[2]	Gujarat	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Farooq Ahmed 7', ?', ?', ?' Ghulam Rasool 14', 50'		Peter Paul

Services v Delhi

25 February 1969	Services	2–0[3]	Delhi	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Shyam Thapa 62' Bir Bahadur 78'			Referee: C. R. Dasgupta (Bengal)

Mysore v Jammu and Kashmir

26 February 1969	Mysore	3–0[4]	Jammu and Kashmir	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	K. Abdul Azeez 25' Doraiswamy Nataraj 44' Nagendra			Referee: C. J. Vaz (Bombay)

Uttar Pradesh v Haryana

27 February 1969	Uttar Pradesh	2–1[5]	Haryana	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Somnath Chanda 55', 67'		Ramesh Sharma 25'	Referee: C. R. Dasgupta (Bengal)

Andhra Pradesh v Orissa

28 February 1969	Andhra Pradesh	2–1[6]	Orissa	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Chakravarthy 3' Jaffar 63'		Ramakrishnan 70'	Referee: S. K. Bhattacharjee (Delhi)

Maharashtra v Uttar Pradesh

1 March 1969	Maharashtra	3–0[7]	Uttar Pradesh	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	D'Souza 48' Rawat 55', 60'

Mysore v Services

2 March 1969	Mysore	1–1[8]	Services	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Muniyappa 28'		Williams

Rajasthan v Goa

3 March 1969	Rajasthan	1–0[9]	Goa	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Chain Singh 47'

Maharashtra v Andhra Pradesh

4 March 1969	Maharashtra	3–1[10]	Andhra Pradesh	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	D'Souza 3', 88' Ranjit Thapa 18'		Chakravarthy 17'

Rajasthan v Services

6 March 1969	Rajasthan	6–1[11]	Services	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Magan Singh Rajvi 3', 8', 13', 28' Sathyaprakash 53'		Bose	Referee: Mohammed Azam (Andhra Pradesh)

Madras v Assam

7 March 1969	Madras	6–1[12]	Assam	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Johnson 18', 67' Palaniswamy 28', 55' Victor 53', ?'		Basanta Kabui 60'

Mysore v Services

9 March 1969	Mysore	2–2[13]	Services	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Nagendra 15' (pen.)		Bir Bahadur 19'

Madhya Pradesh v Tripura

11 March 1969	Madhya Pradesh	0–0[14]	Tripura	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
				Referee: D. W. Dunn (Assam)

Madhya Pradesh v Tripura

12 March 1969	Madhya Pradesh	1–2[15]	Tripura	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore
	Bimal Roy Chowdhury ?'		Ranjit Thapa ?' (pen.) Chinta Bahadur ?'	Referee: Varadachari (Madras)

Knockout stage

Madras entered the quarter-finals after its victory against Assam in the group stage.^[12] However, Bengal and Punjab made the quarter-finals after their wins over Tripura and Bihar respectively in the pre-quarter-finals.

Pre-quarter-finals

13 March 1969

Bengal	3–0	Tripura
Pranab Ganguly 40' Bhowmick 55', 73'	Report

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: Moin-ud-din Hasan

15 March 1969

Punjab	4–0[16]	Bihar
Arjan Singh 11', 89', 90' Joginder Singh 48'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Quarter-finals

10 March 1969

Madras	4–1[17]	Rajasthan
Victor ?', 55', ?' Johnson ?'		Bhagirath 76'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: S. K. Bhattacharjee (Delhi)

14 March 1969

Mysore	2–1[18]	Services
Prabhakar 73' Muniyappa 85'		Bir Bahadur 15'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: C. J. Vaz (Bombay)

17 March 1969

Punjab	1–1[19]	Bengal
Inder Singh ?' (pen.)		Parimal Dey ?' (pen.)

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Replay

19 March 1969

Punjab	2–2[20]	Bengal

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: Ikram-ul-Haq (Delhi)

Second replay

20 March 1969

Punjab	1–4[21]	Bengal
Inder Singh 35'		Parimal Dey 10', 67' Habib 17' Pranab Ganguly 72'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were played in two legs; all games including the final were played at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore. The first semi-final was played between Mysore and Madras. After the two legs ended with the teams level at a 3–3 aggregate, a coin toss was held to decide the team that would progress to the Final. A confusion followed with both captains claiming to have won the toss, before the tournament committee of the Mysore State Football Association and officials of the All India Football Federation decided that another match be played to decide the victor.^[22] Madras withdrew protesting their decision for the replay which meant Mysore went through to the Final. The Madras Football Association stated that the "replay is against the rules of the championship and in spite of the fact that the Madras captain called correctly during the toss of the coin..." It further added, "It may be mentioned that the rules of the championship do not provide for a toss but only for a draw of lots."^[23] The second semi-final was played between Bengal and Maharashtra. Both legs ended in 1–1 draws, and Bengal proceeded to the Final after a lot was drawn in their favour.^[24]

First leg

16 March 1969

Mysore	2–3[25]	Madras
K. Abdul Azeez 77', 87'		Victor 26', 70' Johnson 72'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: C. J. Vaz (Bombay)

22 March 1969

Bengal	1–1[26]	Maharashtra
Dastidar 55'		D'Souza 1'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Second leg

23 March 1969

Mysore	1–0[22]	Madras
A. D. Nagendra 60' (pen.)

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

24 March 1969

Bengal	1–1[24] (a.e.t.)	Maharashtra
Bhowmick		D'Souza

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: Ikram-ul-Haq (Delhi)

Final

The Final was contested by Mysore and Bengal on 26 March 1969. The match ended in a goalless draw and was replayed on 29 March. The replay which was announced to be played on 30 March was later brought back by a day.^[27] Mysore won the replay 1–0 with Doraiswamy Nataraj scoring for them in the 67th minute.^[28][29]

26 March 1969

Mysore	0–0[30]	Bengal

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: C. J. Vaz (Bombay)

Replay

29 March 1969

Mysore	1–0[29]	Bengal
Doraiswamy Nataraj 67'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Referee: Ikram-ul-Haq (Delhi)