Durand Cup ‘TROPHY TOUR’ flagged off by the service chiefs and AIFF boss Kalyan Chaubey

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 organised at Manekshaw Centre, Delhi Cantt, on June 30th, 2023.

The tournament is scheduled to commence in Kolkata from 03 August to 03 September 2023. Amongst the many 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 compete in.

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Organised 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 an appearance at some major cities like Shimla, Udhampur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Kokrajhar, Guwahati and Shillong before reaching Kolkata for the mega event.

While addressing the media, Kalyan Chaubey said:

New thing is there are foreign teams from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. New things are that ISL and I-League teams are participating. New thing is that there are several venues. So I think Durand Cup this year will bring in a lot of passion and dedication and build good for Indian football.

You also see how All Indian Football Federation is collaborating with the Durand Cup Committee as we are trying to see how Durand can get maximum exposure and how the players can get more game time.

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The 132nd edition of the tournament will witness the participation of 24 teams, including teams from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, as foreign teams are participating in the event 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 the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The tournament, in essence, has always symbolized the prime point of excellence, sportsmanship and competitiveness in sports.