Durand Cup: What you need to know about Asia's oldest football tournament

The Durand Cup is an annual domestic football competition organised in India. Shimla was the first city to host the cup in 1888. It is the oldest club football tournament in Asia and the third oldest in the world. The tournament is hosted yearly by the Durand Football Tournament Society. 

The history of the tournament

Pre-Independence :

• The tournament was named after its founder, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of British India from 1884 to 1894. 
• In the beginning, the Durand Cup was initially played only amongst the armed services, but was later opened to professional football clubs across the country.
• Initially, the matches were played in Dagshai, Shimla, but were later shifted to the national capital, Delhi. 
• The tournament was later stopped due to World War II and then was discontinued till 1947. 

  

Post-independence 

• The Durand Cup was accidentally discovered in the office of the then Commander-in-Chief Sir Claude Auchinleck after 1947.
• Several efforts were made by the then Defence Secretary, HM Patel, and he finally acquired the cup and, since then, the Durand Football Tournament Society, a registered society in Delhi, has hosted it.
• It is headed by the Chief of Defence Staff and chaired by the three Service Chiefs of the Indian Armed Forces.
• The army's presence has been maintained by the participation of several clubs of different regiments of the Indian Armed Forces as guest invitees. 
• The first match after independence was between Hyderabad City Police and Mohun Bagan AC.

Currently, it is the 131st edition of the Durand Cup and is participated by 20 teams in total which are divided into four groups.

Here are the four groups: This year, for the first time, the tournament is being played in various cities in West Bengal, Assam and Manipur. 

Hon’ble Defence Minister Shri @rajnathsingh ji reached Imphal to inaugurate the 131st Durand Cup.

Hon’ble CM Shri @NBirenSingh along with his cabinet colleagues accorded a warm welcome to the Hon’ble Defence Minister on his arrival at Bir Tikendrajit Int’l Airport. pic.twitter.com/J2gn3nzsEb

— BJP Manipur (@BJP4Manipur) August 18, 2022

Check out the venues: 

• Salt Lake Stadium (Kolkata, West Bengal),
• Naihati Stadium (Naihati, West Bengal),
• Kishore Bharati Stadium (Kolkata, West Bengal),
• Khuman Lampak Stadium (Imphal, Manipur)
• Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium (Guwahati, Assam)

Tournament format: The Durand Cup is played in two phases: round-robin and knockouts. A total of 20 teams will compete against each other and they will be divided into four groups. Each team may have a maximum of 30 players. Following the round-robin stage, the top teams from each group would advance to the knockout stage, with two teams advancing to the finals.

The most successful teams in the tournament have been East Bengal Club and Mohun Bagan AC, accounting for 32 cup victories over the years, with 16 wins each.