General Manoj Pande, The Chief of the Army Staff, along with Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of Air Staff and Mr Kalyan Chaubey, President of All India Football Federation (AIFF) flagged off the “Trophy Tour” of the 132nd edition of Durand Cup,
India’s oldest football tournament at a ceremony organized at Manekshaw Centre, Delhi Cantt on 30 June 2023. The tournament is scheduled to commence in Kolkata from 03 August to 03 September 2023. Amongst the large number of attendees were young football enthusiasts and eminent sports personalities.
Durand Cup is Asia’s oldest and the world’s third-oldest football tournament, in which top Indian football clubs from across the country participate. Organized by the Indian Armed Forces, the Durand Cup has been the breeding ground for India’s best footballing talent over the years. The inaugural edition took place in Shimla in 1888, when it started off as an Army Cup, open only to the British Indian Army troops in India, but soon opened up to civilian teams as well.
The Durand Cup tournament is unique where in the winning team walks away with three trophies, i.e the Durand Cup (a rolling trophy and the original prize), the Shimla Trophy (also a rolling trophy and first given by the residents of Shimla in 1904) and the President’s Cup (for permanent keep and first presented by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, in 1956). Over the next month, the three trophies as part of a Trophy Tour will traverse the length and breadth of the country with appearances at some major cities like Shimla, Udhampur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kokrajhar, Guwahati and Shillong before reaching Kolkata for the mega event.
The 132nd edition of the tournament will witness the participation of 24 teams including teams from Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, the foreign teams are taking part in the tournament after a gap of 27 years. The tournament is open to all club teams and conducted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) under the aegis of All India Football Federation (AIFF). The tournament in essence has always symbolized the high point of excellence, sportsmanship, and competitiveness in the field of sports.
The participating teams are as follows:
1 BENGALURU FC
2 MUMBAI CITY FC
3 MOHUN BAGAN SUPER GIANT
4 EAST BENGAL FC
5 KERALA BLASTERS
6 JAMSHEDPUR FC
7 ODISHA FC
8 NORTHEAST UNITED FC
9 HYDERABAD FC
10 CHENNAIYIN FC
11 ROUNDGLASS PUNJAB FC
12 FC GOA
13 GOKULAM KERALA FC
14 MOHAMMADEN SPORTING SC
15 RAJASTHAN UNITED
16 SHILLONG LAJONG FC
17 DELHI FC
18 BODOLAND FC
19 INDIAN ARMY FOOTBALL TEAM
20 INDIAN AIR FORCE FOOTBALL TEAM
21 INDIAN NAVY FOOTBALL TEAM
22 BANGLADESH SERVICES
23 BHUTAN SERVICES
24 NEPAL SERVICES