The Durand Cup is an annual football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Annadale, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF), it is the oldest existing club football tournament in Asia 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 Indian Armed Forces, 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 Indian Super League and majority of the I-League clubs participate. The tournament indicates the beginning of an Indian football season across all divisions. The premier domestic cup status and the AFC Champions League Two spot belong to the Super Cup.
The tournament is named after its founder Henry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the British 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. Since the independence, 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 2016.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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.List of Durand Cup tournament winners and runner-ups RSSSF. Retrieved 7 May 2021 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. 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.
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, but was strongly resisted by the Defence Secretary H.M. Patel, who acquired and stored it in the State Bank of India, 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 Delhi, presided by the Chief of Defence Staff and chaired by the three Service Chiefs of Indian Armed Forces. 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. In 1997, FC Kochin became the first South Indian club to get their hands on the Durand Cup.
Mahindra United FC won the first title of the 3rd millennium 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 2010, 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, Dempo SC and Churchill Brothers FC Goa. Churchill Brothers FC Goa won the tournament thrice in 2007, 2009 and 2011, 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 2016. 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 Defence 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.
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. In 2020, the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, 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 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. 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.Recent editions of the Durand Cup have yielded notable outcomes, with finals largely hosted at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. In the 131st edition (2022), Bengaluru FC defeated Mumbai City FC 2–1 to secure their maiden title. In the 132nd edition (2023), Mohun Bagan Super Giant overcame Emami East Bengal FC 1–0, ending a 23-year title drought and claiming their 17th championship. In the 133rd edition (2024), NorthEast United FC defeated Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the final to win their first major title. In the 134th edition (2025), NorthEast United FC successfully defended their crown by defeating Diamond Harbour FC, thereby becoming back-to-back champions.
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 football competition around the world, the 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 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 Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Finals Pre-independence era (1888–1947) Year Winners Score Runners-up Venue Ref. 1888 Royal Scots Fusiliers Highland Light Infantry 1889 Highland Light Infantry Shimla Rifles (2nd Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps) 1890 Royal Irish Fusiliers 1891 King's Own Scottish Borderers East Lancashire Regiment 1892 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 1893 Highland Light Infantry 1894 Royal Scots Fusiliers 1895 Somerset Light Infantry 1896 Somerset Light Infantry Black Watch 1897 Black Watch Shimla Rifles (2nd Punjab Volunteer Rifle Corps) 1898 North Staffordshire Regiment 1899 Yorkshire Regiment 1900 South Wales Borderers East Lancashire Regiment 1901 South Staffordshire Regiment 1902 Hampshire Regiment East Lancashire Regiment 1903 Royal Irish Rifles Queen's Regiment 1904 North Staffordshire Regiment Black Watch 1905 Royal Dragoons Dorset Regiment 1906 Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment 1907 Royal Welch Fusiliers 1908 Lancashire Fusiliers Royal Irish Rifles 1909 King's Regiment 1910 Royal Scots King's Royal Rifle Corps 1911 Black Watch Lancashire Fusiliers 1912 Royal Scots Lancashire Fusiliers 1913 Lancashire Fusiliers King's Royal Rifle Corps 1914–1919 1920 Black Watch Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) 1921 Worcestershire Regiment Royal Fusiliers 1922 Lancashire Fusiliers Royal Field Artillery 1923 Cheshire Regiment Essex Regiment 1924 Worcestershire Regiment 1925 Sherwood Foresters Worcestershire Regiment 1926 Durham Light Infantry Sherwood Foresters 1927 York and Lancaster Regiment Eastern Railway 1928 Sherwood Foresters York and Lancaster Regiment 1929 York and Lancaster Regiment East Yorkshire Regiment 1930 Royal Leicestershire Regiment 1931 Devonshire Regiment Border Regiment 1932 King's Shropshire Light Infantry Devonshire Regiment 1933 Royal Leicestershire Regiment 1934 Royal Corps of Signals Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 1935 Border Regiment Royal Norfolk Regiment 1936 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Green Howards 1937 Border Regiment Royal Scots 1938 South Wales Borderers Northwestern Railway Loco SC (Lahore) 1939 1940 Mohammedan Royal Warwickshire Regiment 1941–1947
Post-independence era (1947–present)