On Tuesday afternoon at the sports ground of Government Degree College, Kathua, a forward named Sushant scored three. Around him, Sunday FC put six past Kharote FC without reply. An hour or so of football later, on the same ground, Hiranagar FC beat Chandwan FC 5-0.
Eleven goals, two matches, no reply from either losing side. It is not the most balanced start a league has ever had. It is, however, a league — and that is the part worth noticing.
What it is
The Kathua Football League 2026 is a District Administration Kathua initiative, run under the Nasha Mukt Abhiyan — the anti-drug campaign — with 12 teams playing at the Sports Ground, GDC Kathua. The Deputy Commissioner unveiled the trophy and the kits before it began. The stated aim is a straightforward one: give young people in the district somewhere to put their evenings.
The competing sides are local through and through — Sunday FC, Kharote FC, Hiranagar FC, Chandwan FC, DPS FC, Khelo India, FC UK, Shadow Strikers and Bhallar Football Club among them. These are village and town names, not franchises.
Tuesday's scorers
Sunday FC 6-0 Kharote FC — Sushant (3), Amit Malhotra (2), Raghuvir Singh (1)
Hiranagar FC 5-0 Chandwan FC — Lalit (2), Aryan, Aniket, Dhruv
Wednesday's fixtures were listed as DPS FC against Khelo India, and FC UK against Shadow Strikers.
Can you go?
Yes, and that is the most useful sentence in this piece. Team entry is closed — the 12-team field is drawn — but the matches are being played in the open at a government college ground and there is no ticket.
Kathua sits about 90 km up the highway from Jammu city, comfortably inside a morning's travel. For a Jammu reader, a league that is still running is a rarer thing than it sounds: most local sport reaches this paper as a result, after the fact, with the medals already handed out.
One honest gap. Neither the full fixture list nor the league's closing date has been published anywhere we could find, so we cannot tell you which Saturday to turn up. The Deputy Commissioner's office in Kathua is the place to ask, and if you are making the trip it is worth the call first.
Where this fits
Jammu district has had its own football and cricket leagues running under the floodlights at MA Stadium and Parade for a couple of seasons now. What Kathua is doing is the same idea moved down a tier, onto a college ground, with local clubs rather than city sides — and, unusually, with the district administration rather than a sports association putting up the trophy.
Whether an anti-drug campaign is the right sponsor for a football league is a fair question. Whether 12 teams from Hiranagar, Chandwan, Bhallar and the rest getting competitive fixtures is good for football in this belt is not much of one.
Sources: Daily Excelsior; Jammu Links News; Jammu Links News, league launch; Jammu Links News, trophy and kits.
