Since the inception of the
Federation Cup, it became merely an exhibition tournament with invitational participations. However, from 2022 all the
Indian Super League and majority of the
I-League clubs participate making it open to all clubs across all divisions in India along guest invite teams. The tournament indicates the beginning of an Indian football season across all divisions.[10][11]
The tournament is named after its founder
Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of
India from 1884 to 1894. It was first began as a football tournament for different departments and regiments of Armed forces of India and the princely states.[12] Since
independence, the army's presence is maintained by the participation of several clubs of different regiments
Indian Armed Forces as guest invitees.[13]Army Green became the latest Army team to win the competition in
2016.[14]
The Durand Football Tournament, known as Durand Cup, was started by
Sir Henry Mortimer Durand in Shimla in 1888.[15][16] Sir Henry was recuperating from illness in Shimla in
North 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 to
New Delhi.[15]
British Raj era
The Durand tournament was initially a military affair, open to the
British Armed Forces, the
Indian Army and other armed units such as provincial frontier-security regiments and the volunteer regiments of the reserves.[17] In practice, however, the
native soldiers traditionally preferred
field hockey to
football, a fact which has been evident from the
Indian and
Pakistani dominance of that sport in international events such as the
Olympics. 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.[citation needed]
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 by 2–1.[18][19] In 1940 the tournament was relocated to the capital city of
New Delhi and, with most military units dispatched in
World War II, 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.[20] The tournament would get suspended due to the war, which would soon be followed by the
Indian independence movement leading to the
partition of India.[21]
Post-independence
Following the turmoil of in 1947, the Durand Cup was accidentally discovered in the office of
Commander-in-ChiefSir Claude Auchinleck and efforts were made in order to shift the tournament to the newly formed
Pakistan, but was strongly resisted by the
Defence SecretaryH.M. Patel, who acquired and stored it in the
State Bank of India, ensuring that the Durand Cup remains a part of Indian football.[22] Since then the tournament is hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society, a registered society at
Delhi, presided by the
Chief of Defence Staff and chaired by the three Service Chiefs of
Indian Armed Forces.[15][23] 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 tournament would get dominated by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, with
Border Security Force and
JCT FC challenging their dominant run at times.[8] In 1997,
FC Kochin became the first
South Indian club to get their hands on the Durand Cup.[24][25]
Mahindra United FC won the first title of the
3rd millennium and their second time, following its 1998 win.[26] In 2006,
Osian's became the first civilian organisation to co-host the Durand Cup on a 5-year deal with DFTS until
2010, in order to develop the tournament and revive the interest in the game.[27][28] In the following years however, clubs from
Goa produced a run of winning form with clubs like
Salgaocar FC,
Sporting Clube de Goa,
Dempo SC and
Churchill Brothers FC Goa.[29][30][31] Churchill Brothers FC Goa won the tournament thrice in 2007,
2009 and
2011, and narrowly missed a hat-trick, as
runners-up in 2008.[32][33][34] Since 2000, only twice the tournament was won by the Indian Armed Force teams – Army XI in 2005 and
Army Green in
2016.[29][35] In
2013, 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 DefenceManohar Parrikar.[36] 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.[37]
In
2019, the tournament was jointly organised by the Armed Forces and the
Government of West Bengal, thus relocated to
West Bengal in favour for higher attendance figures. In that edition,
Gokulam Kerala FC became the second football club from
Kerala to win the tournament.[24] In 2020, the tournament was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.[38][39] In
2021, the Armed Forces decided to host the tournament in West Bengal, jointly with the Government of West Bengal, till 2025.[40] As the significance of the tournament depraved, usually the participating
Indian Super League (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.[41] 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.[42] Due to expansion of the competition, the matches were hosted at more than one venue, alongside Kolkata, which was unprecedented till then.[43]
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.[44]
A total of 24 teams feature in the group stage round.[45] 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.[46]
Trophies
Unlike any other competition around the world winning team is presented with three trophies:[47]
Durand Cup (Nicknamed The Masterpiece): the original tournament trophy which became a rolling trophy since 1965.[48]
Shimla Trophy (Nicknamed The Artistry): donated by the residents of
Shimla in 1904 to show their passion and support for the tournament, the trophy began to be awarded in rolling since 1965.[49]
^There are numerous claims in the list of
oldest football competitions, which are grouped as per leagues, cups, regional cups, youth competitions etc. Here the competition is listed as per national cup competitions, following
FA Cup (1871),
Scottish Cup (1874),
Welsh Cup (1877) and
Irish Cup (1881).
Notes: The tournament was not held from 1914-19 (due to
WWI), in 1939 (due to
WWII), from 1941-49 (due to
WWII and
Partition), in 1962 (due to
1962 War) and in 2015 and 2017-2018 (due to unknown reasons)