Since the inception of theFederation Cup, it became merely an exhibition tournament with invitational participations. However, from 2022 all theIndian Super League and majority of theI-League clubs participate. The tournament indicates the beginning of an Indian football season across all divisions. Currently the premier domestic cup status and theAFC Champions League Two spot belongs to theAIFF Super Cup.[11][12]
The tournament is named after its founderHenry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of theBritish Raj 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.[13] Since theindependence, the army's presence is maintained by the participation of different regiments as guest invitees.[14]Army Green became the latest army team to win the competition in2016.[15]
The Durand Football Tournament was started by Henry Mortimer Durand in 1888.[16][17] Sir Henry was recuperating from illness in Shimla inNorth India. 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 toNew Delhi.[16]
The Durand tournament was initially a military affair, open to theBritish Armed Forces, theIndian Army and other armed units such as provincial frontier-security regiments and the volunteer regiments of the reserves.[18] In practice, however, thenative soldiers traditionally preferredfield hockey to football, a fact which has been evident from theIndian andPakistani dominance of that sport in international events such as theOlympics. The exception to this tradition were theNepali men of the brigades ofGurkhas. 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.[citation needed]
The matches were played inDagshai, near Shimla, with the inaugural final becoming aScottish affair, where the first name on the trophy been inscribed was theRoyal Scots Fusiliers, who beat theHighland Light Infantry by 2–1.[19][20] In 1940 the tournament was relocated to the capital city ofNew Delhi and, with most military units dispatched inWorld War II, the tournament was opened to civilian teams so as to maintain the level of competition, whereinMohammedan became the first civilian team to win the tournament at theIrwin Amphitheater.[21] The tournament would get suspended due to the war, which would soon be followed by theIndian independence movement leading to thepartition of India.[22]
Following the turmoil of in 1947, the Durand Cup was accidentally discovered in the office ofCommander-in-ChiefSir Claude Auchinleck and efforts were made in order to shift the tournament to the newly formedPakistan, but was strongly resisted by theDefence SecretaryH.M. Patel, who acquired and stored it in theState Bank of India, ensuring that the Durand Cup remains a part of Indian football.[23] Since then the tournament is hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society, a registered society atDelhi, presided by theChief of Defence Staff and chaired by the three Service Chiefs ofIndian Armed Forces.[16][24] At the first edition of the tournament since the independence of India,Hyderabad City Police defeatedMohun Bagan by 1–0 in the replayed final. For the next ten years, the trophy would go on to swap hands frequently amongEast 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 toSino-Indian War, the tournament would get dominated by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, withBorder Security Force andJCT FC challenging their dominant run at times.[9] In 1997,FC Kochin became the firstSouth Indian club to get their hands on the Durand Cup.[25][26]
Mahindra United FC won the first title of the3rd millennium and their second time, following its 1998 win.[27] In 2006,Osian's became the first civilian organisation to co-host the Durand Cup on a 5-year deal with DFTS until2010, in order to develop the tournament and revive the interest in the game.[28][29] In the following years however, clubs fromGoa produced a run of winning form with clubs likeSalgaocar FC,Sporting Clube de Goa,Dempo SC andChurchill Brothers FC Goa.[30][31][32] Churchill Brothers FC Goa won the tournament thrice in 2007,2009 and2011, and narrowly missed a hat-trick, asrunners-up in 2008.[33][34][35] Since 2000, only twice the tournament was won by the Indian Armed Force teams – Army XI in 2005 andArmy Green in2016.[30][36] In2013, 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 ofMinister of DefenceManohar Parrikar.[37] 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.[38]
In2019, the tournament was jointly organised by the Armed Forces and theGovernment of West Bengal, thus relocated toWest Bengal in favour for higher attendance figures. In that edition,Gokulam Kerala FC became the second football club fromKerala to win the tournament.[25] In 2020, the tournament was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[39][40] In2021, the Armed Forces decided to host the tournament in West Bengal, jointly with the Government of West Bengal, till 2025.[41] As the significance of the tournament depraved, usually the participatingIndian Super League (ISL) clubs would field their respectivereserve 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.[42] 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 forAFC competitions, therefore AFC for the first time recognised Durand Cup as one of the cup tournaments of India. Hence, in the131st 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.[43] Due to expansion of the competition, the matches were hosted at more than one venue, alongside Kolkata, which was unprecedented till then.[44]
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 andknockouts.[45]
A total of 24 teams feature in the group stage round.[46] 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.[47]
Unlike any other competition around the world winning team is presented with three trophies:[48]
Durand Cup (NicknamedThe Masterpiece): the original tournament trophy which became a rolling trophy since 1965.[49]
Shimla Trophy (NicknamedThe Artistry): donated by the residents ofShimla in 1904 to show their passion and support for the tournament, the trophy began to be awarded in rolling since 1965.[50]
^There are numerous claims in the list of oldest football competitions, listed as per national cup competitions, following theFA Cup (1871), theScottish Cup (1874), theWelsh Cup (1877) and theIrish Cup (1881).
Notes: The tournament was not held from 1914-19 (due toWWI), in 1939 (due toWWII), from 1941-49 (due toWWII andPartition), in 1962 (due to1962 War) and in 2015 and 2017-2018 (due to unknown reasons)
2024 Durand Cup
