VARANASI: Agra put ten goals past Aligarh as the senior men’s state football championship opened at Sigra Sports Complex on Friday, October 23. Tanuj and Aryan each scored a hat-trick, giving Agra six goals between them in the day’s most one-sided result.
The 2026–27 championship is being organised by the Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate and the Uttar Pradesh Football Association. Four matches were played on the opening day, with Meerut, Moradabad and Kanpur joining Agra among the winners.
Agra’s scoring was not limited to its two hat-trick makers. Jatin added a brace, while Dev Tomar and Pawan contributed a goal each to complete the 10–0 scoreline. Aligarh finished without a goal in reply.
For Agra, the result provided both an opening victory and a clean sheet. It was also the only double-figure score among Friday’s four matches. Tanuj and Aryan’s combined tally alone exceeded the total scored by any of the other winning teams.
Three other divisions start with victories
Meerut beat Devipatan division 3–1 in the first match. Jainam struck twice and Shubham scored once for Meerut, accounting for all three of the winning side’s goals.
Moradabad defeated Saharanpur 4–2 in another contest. Mohammad Faizan scored twice, with Mohammad Asif and Aman Tariq adding one goal apiece. The two-goal margin made this the closest of the four matches by the final score.
Kanpur completed the reported opening-day programme with a 4–0 victory over Azamgarh. The individual scorers in that match were not identified in the opening-day account.
Across the four fixtures, the winning teams scored 21 goals and conceded three. Agra and Kanpur kept clean sheets, while Meerut and Moradabad secured their wins despite conceding. Those results establish an early record at Sigra, rather than a final championship ranking.
Disagreement over player notices
The opening day also saw a disagreement between Uttar Pradesh Football Association representatives and players and officials from Bareilly over participation notices.
According to the match-day account, the association had issued notices about two weeks earlier to several players over appearances for unrecognised clubs. Two players named in those notices were included in the Bareilly divisional team.
When association representatives raised an objection, the players said they had received neither a notice nor information about it. Association representatives maintained that the Bareilly football association’s secretary had been informed. The account did not establish a final ruling on their participation.
The administrative disagreement remained separate from the four confirmed results. On the pitch, Friday belonged most emphatically to Agra: ten goals, two hat-tricks and no goal conceded against Aligarh in its opening appearance at Sigra.
