The 132nd edition of Durand Cup is kicking off in this year August as the opener for the club football season in Indian football. An interesting news came up that this season's Durand Cup is set to feature 3 the foreign invited teams from South Asia i.e. Nepal, Bangladesh & India. This time a total of 24 teams will be participating in the oldest existing football tournament in Asia.
All the 12 India's top tier Hero Indian Super League club, 5 top I-league Clubs as per 2022/23 season, 4 India Armed Force teams & 3 foreign invited teams will participate in a one month long competition.
24 Participating Teams:
- ISL Teams = 12
- I-League Teams= 5
- Armed Forces Teams= 4
- Invited Teams = 3 (1 each from Nepal, Bangladesh & Bhutan)
When & where will Durand Cup 2023 starts?
The 2023 Durand Cup will be kicked off from 3rd August to 3rd September in four cities Kolkata, Kokrajhar, Shillong and Guwahati.The 132nd edition of the Durand Cup will witness 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 org .
— Sohan Podder (@SohanPodder2) June 30, 2023
Who will be invited as the guest foreign teams in 2023 Durand Cup?
The 132nd edition of the Durand Cup will witness 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 org .
— Sohan Podder (@SohanPodder2) June 30, 2023
The 132nd edition of the Durand Cup will witness participation of 24 teams including services team from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, the foreign teams are taking part in the tournament after a gap of 27 years. It was back in 1996 edition when any foreign teams were invited in the history of Durand Cup where Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Football Club lifted the trophy defeating an Iraqi club Al Naft by 1-0 in the final.
This time too after nearly a 3 decades the tournament is open to all teams from foreign clubs:
Nepal: As the service team was invited club one of the services teams among Tribhuvan Army Football Club, Nepal Police Club or APF FC may participate in the competition.
Bhutan: TBD
Bangladesh: TBD
*Note: The above mentioned clubs are not the final participants. We had just expressed out our thoughts on the probable scenarios.
Durand Cup 2023 format:
Group Stage: All the 24 participating teams will be divided in to 4 groups each of 6 teams. Each team will face off each other within their group once. At the end top 2 teams ( group winners & runners up) from each group will advance to knockout stage.
Knockout Stage: The 8 teams from the group stage will compete in the quarterfinals followed by 2 Semifinals & 1 Final.
Durand Cup: Asia's oldest existing club football tournament
The Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as Durand Cup, is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Shimla. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and All India Football Federation (AIFF), the tournament is the oldest existing club football tournament in Asia and the fifth oldest national football competition in the world. The tournament currently serves as season opener for Indian football season and it is open for any club within the top three divisions with guest invitee teams from different sections of Indian Armed Forces.
