After 27 years, foreign teams will compete in the Durand Cup Trophy Tour

After a 27-year hiatus, foreign clubs will return to Asia’s oldest football event, the local Durand Cup, at the start of the season.

There will be 24 teams competing in the third-oldest event in the globe, featuring teams from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan.

The 132nd Durand Cup trophy tour was officially launched on Friday in New Delhi by the event’s organisers. It will start on August 3 in Kolkata.

The trophy trip was launched off by General Manoj Pande, head of the Army staff, Air head Marshal VR Chaudhari, and Kalyan Chaubey, president of the All India Football Federation.

Along with Kolkata, which will host the summit match on September 3, Guwahati, Kokrajhar, and Shillong will all host games.

Bengaluru FC’s 2-1 victory against Mumbai City FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata last year earned Indian superstar Sunil Chhetri the prized Durand Cup for the first time in his illustrious career.

The Durand Cup, which is put on by the Indian Armed Forces, has historically produced some of the top football players in the nation.

The first competition, known as the Army Cup and solely accessible to British Indian Army soldiers stationed in India, was held at Shimla in 1888.

The tournament is distinctive in that the winning team leaves with three trophies: the President’s Cup, which was first presented by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, in 1956; the Durand Cup, which is a rolling trophy and the original award; and the Shimla Trophy, which is also a rolling trophy and was first awarded by the people of Shimla in 1904.

The three trophies will travel across the entire nation for the next month as part of a “Trophy Tour,” stopping in major cities like Shimla, Udhampur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kokrajhar, Guwahati, and Shillong before arriving in Kolkata for the major event.