Update: the divisional round of the J&K Sports Council's sub-junior boys football trials is over, and the numbers are in. 22 players from Jammu division have been shortlisted for the UT-level trials, alongside 52 from Kashmir division. The next — and final — stage runs at TRC Ground, Srinagar, from 7 September.
The story so far
In late August the J&K Sports Council put out an open call for two teams it needs to field in the All India Football Federation's National Football Championships 2026-27: a junior girls' side and a sub-junior boys' side. JammuBeat carried the details at the time — Open Football Trials in Jammu: Junior Girls This Weekend, Sub-Junior Boys From September 1. The boys' window was for players born between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014, resident in J&K, turning up with a birth certificate, Aadhaar, two photographs and full kit.
What happened, day by day
- 1–3 September, Jammu. Three days of trials at the Mini Stadium Synthetic Turf, Parade Ground — the same surface the junior boys used for the Dr B.C. Roy Trophy trials in July. Sixty players were still on the pitch on the final day.
- 1–3 September, Kashmir. The parallel divisional trials ran in the valley, with 95 players on the closing day.
- 3 September. Both divisional rounds closed. Jammu's selection committee — District Sports Officer B.A. Bakshi supervising, with Ricky Kumar, Nikita Thapa, Rameez and Dr Rahul Razdan — named 22 to go forward; Kashmir's panel named 52.
- 7 September onwards, Srinagar. UT-level trials at TRC Ground, where the two shortlists are merged and cut to the final J&K squad. The council's original schedule pencilled this in for 7–8 September.
The selectors say players were judged on technical skill, tactical understanding, fitness, game awareness, discipline and how they performed under match conditions — the standard rubric, but worth knowing for anyone planning to try next year.
What's new
Two things. First, the Jammu contingent is 22, not a bigger share: with 74 players going to Srinagar in total, fewer than a third are from this side of the Pir Panjal. That is not a verdict on Jammu's football — the Kashmir trial simply drew more players on its final day (95 to Jammu's 60) — but it does mean Jammu's 22 face a numerically larger field for the final places. Second, the timetable has firmed up: the UT round is confirmed at TRC Ground from Monday, 7 September, so the final squad for the AIFF sub-junior nationals should be known within days.
For the 22, this week is the whole point of the exercise. For everyone else born in 2013–14 who missed the window, the practical lesson from this cycle is the same one the junior boys' trials taught in July: the Sports Council announces these with roughly ten days' notice, they run on a weekday morning at Parade Ground, and the paperwork is non-negotiable. JammuBeat's earlier piece on the junior boys' round — Jammu's Turf Was Round One — has the pattern.
Sources: Greater Kashmir — Sub-Junior Boys Football selection trials conclude across J&K (4 Sept 2026); Gadyal Kashmir — Sub-Junior Boys Football selection trials conclude across J&K (4 Sept 2026); Greater Kashmir — J&K Sports Council announces football selection trials for national championships (22 Aug 2026).
