The Durand Cup (also called the IndianOil Durand Cup Powered by

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for sponsorship reasons) is an annual domestic

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competition in

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which was first held in 1888 in

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, Himachal Pradesh. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and the

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(AIFF), it is the oldest existing club football tournament in

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and the fifth oldest national football competition in the world. The tournament currently serves as the curtain raiser for every Indian football season. It is open for any national club, with guest invitee teams from different sections of the

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, keeping the century long tradition intact. Since the inception of the Federation Cup, it became merely an exhibition tournament with invitational participations. However, from 2022 all the

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and majority of the

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

clubs participate. The tournament indicates the beginning of an Indian football season across all divisions. Currently the premier domestic cup status and the AFC Champions League Two spot belongs to the

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. The tournament is named after its founder Henry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the

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from 1884 to 1894. It first began as a football tournament for different departments and regiments of the armed forces of India and the princely states. Since the

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, the army's presence is maintained by the participation of different regiments as guest invitees. Army Green became the latest army team to win the competition in

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History

Foundation

The Durand Football Tournament was started by Henry Mortimer Durand in 1888. Sir Henry was recuperating from illness in Shimla in

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

. Having become conscious of the value of sport as a means to maintain health, he decided to present a prize to encourage sporting competition in India. In 1940, the venue of the tournament was shifted to

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British Raj era

The Durand tournament was initially a military affair, open to the

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, the

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and other armed units such as provincial frontier-security regiments and the volunteer regiments of the reserves. In practice, however, the native soldiers traditionally preferred

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to football, a fact which has been evident from the Indian and

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

dominance of that sport in international events such as the

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. The exception to this tradition were the Nepali men of the brigades of Gurkhas. Initially, this tended to leave the field open to the Indian Army until football's popularity took hold and it became the more universal sport it is today. The matches were played in Dagshai, near Shimla, with the inaugural final becoming a Scottish affair, where the first name on the trophy been inscribed was the Royal Scots Fusiliers, who beat the

Highland Light Infantry The Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881. It took part in the First World War, First and World War II, Second World Wars, until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 t ...

by 2–1. In 1940 the tournament was relocated to the capital city of

and, with most military units dispatched in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the tournament was opened to civilian teams so as to maintain the level of competition, wherein Mohammedan became the first civilian team to win the tournament at the Irwin Amphitheater. The tournament would get suspended due to the war, which would soon be followed by the

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leading to the

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Post-independence

Following the turmoil of in 1947, the Durand Cup was accidentally discovered in the office of Commander-in-Chief Sir Claude Auchinleck and efforts were made in order to shift the tournament to the newly formed

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, but was strongly resisted by the Defence Secretary H.M. Patel, who acquired and stored it in the

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, ensuring that the Durand Cup remains a part of Indian football. Since then the tournament is hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society, a registered society at

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, presided by the Chief of Defence Staff and chaired by the three Service Chiefs of

. At the first edition of the tournament since the independence of India, Hyderabad City Police defeated Mohun Bagan by 1–0 in the replayed final. For the next ten years, the trophy would go on to swap hands frequently among East Bengal FC, Mohun Bagan, Madras Regimental Centre and Hyderabad City Police, who played as Andhra Pradesh Police after 1960. After a year of halt due to

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

, the tournament would get dominated by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, with Border Security Force and

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challenging their dominant run at times. In 1997,

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became the first

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n club to get their hands on the Durand Cup. Mahindra United FC won the first title of the

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and their second time, following its 1998 win. In 2006, Osian's became the first civilian organisation to co-host the Durand Cup on a 5-year deal with DFTS until

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, in order to develop the tournament and revive the interest in the game. In the following years however, clubs from Goa produced a run of winning form with clubs like Salgaocar FC,

Sporting Clube de Goa Sporting Clube de Goa (simply known as Sporting Goa and abbreviated as SCG) is an Indian professional association football, football club based in Panaji, Goa. The club competes in the I-League 2, the third tier of the Indian football league s ...

, Dempo SC and Churchill Brothers FC Goa. Churchill Brothers FC Goa won the tournament thrice in 2007,

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and

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, and narrowly missed a hat-trick, as runners-up in 2008. Since 2000, only twice the tournament was won by the Indian Armed Force teams – Army XI in 2005 and Army Green in

. In

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, Mohammedan SC would win the tournament for the second time after 73 years and for the first time since the independence of India. Due to lack of adequate response in New Delhi, the following year Durand Cup was relocated to Goa, under the instructions of

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Manohar Parrikar. The significance of the tournament had dissipated with time but the Indian Armed Forces kept the Durand Tournament tradition alive for decades. The tournament had been scrapped-off from the Indian football calendar a number of times without any significant reason, for instance in the years 2015, 2017 and 2018. 2021 Durand Cup Final-1

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, the tournament was jointly organised by the Armed Forces and the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal, also known as the West Bengal Government, is the Administrative division, principal administrative authority of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal, created by the Constitution ...

, thus relocated to

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

in favour for higher attendance figures. In that edition, Gokulam Kerala FC became the second football club from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

to win the tournament. In 2020, the tournament was cancelled due to the

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. In

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, the Armed Forces decided to host the tournament in West Bengal, jointly with the Government of West Bengal, till 2025. As the significance of the tournament depraved, usually the participating

(ISL) clubs would field their respective reserve squads, in order to focus on the more important league games. However, at 130th edition of the tournament, organisers took an effort to revive the legacy and most clubs decided to field full-strength squads. FC Goa became fourth Goan club to win the tournament by defeating Mohammedan SC. The following year, AIFF decided to make Durand Cup a mandatory tournament for all ISL clubs to participate since a club must play at least 27 domestic games to be eligible for AFC competitions, therefore AFC for the first time recognised Durand Cup as one of the cup tournaments of India. Hence, in the 131st edition, for the first time, all the clubs of ISL participated in the tournament along with five invited clubs from I-League and the usual four armed force teams. Due to expansion of the competition, the matches were hosted at more than one venue, alongside Kolkata, which was unprecedented till then.

Competition format

While there is no record of the competition's format in its earlier days, currently the Durand Cup is played in two phases: round-robin and knockouts. A total of 24 teams feature in the group stage round. Each team is allowed to have a maximum of 30 players to complete their rosters. After the round-robin schedule, top teams from each group would progress into the knockout stage, which culminates with 2 teams facing each other in the finals.

Trophies

Unlike any other competition around the world winning team is presented with three trophies: * Durand Cup (Nicknamed ''The Masterpiece''): the original tournament trophy which became a rolling trophy since 1965. * Shimla Trophy (Nicknamed ''The Artistry''): donated by the residents of

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

in 1904 to show their passion and support for the tournament, the trophy began to be awarded in rolling since 1965. * President's Cup (Nicknamed ''The Pride''): a rolling trophy that replaced the ''Viceroy's Trophy'' post-independence by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

Finals

Results

Pre-independence era (1888–1949)

Post-independence era (1950–''present'')

Performance by team

Records

*Most wins: 17, ** Mohun Bagan SG (1953, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, 2000, 2023) *Most consecutive wins: 3, joint record: ** Mohun Bagan SG (1963, 1964, 1965 and 1984, 1985, 1986) **

East Bengal East Bengal (; ''Purbô Bangla/Purbôbongo'') was the eastern province of the Dominion of Pakistan, which covered the territory of modern-day Bangladesh. It consisted of the eastern portion of the Bengal region, and existed from 1947 until 195 ...

(1989, 1990, 1991) **

(1893, 1894, 1895) **

Black Watch The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...

(1897, 1898, 1899) *Most appearances: 31 ** Mohun Bagan SG (1950, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2004,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

) *Most finals appearances without ever winning: 3 **

East Lancashire Regiment The East Lancashire Regiment was, from 1881 to 1958, a Line infantry, line infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot and 59t ...

(1880, 1900, 1902) *Most appearances without ever losing: 3, joint record: ** Salgaocar (1999, 2003,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

) ** South Wales Borderers (1900, 1901, 1938) * Biggest final win: **

8–1 Shimla Rifles (2nd Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps) (1889) * Highest scoring final: 9: **

8–1 Shimla Rifles (2nd Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps) (1889)

Notes

References

External links

List of past winners and runners up
at RSSSF {{Football in India Durand Cup, Football cup competitions in India Recurring sporting events established in 1888 1888 establishments in India History of the Indian Army