Foreign teams back after 27 years, Durand Cup trophy tour flagged off

New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) Foreign teams will be back for the domestic season-opener Durand Cup, Asia’s oldest football tournament, after a gap of 27 years, the organisers said on Friday.

The tournament, the third oldest in the world, will witness participation of 24 teams including sides from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The trophy tour for the 132nd edition of Durand Cup, beginning in Kolkata on August 3, was flagged off by the tournament organisers here on Friday.

General Manoj Pande, the chief of the Army staff, along with Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, and Kalyan Chaubey, president All India Football Federation flagged off the trophy tour.

Besides Kolkata, which will also host the summit clash on September 3, matches will be held in Guwahati, Kokrajhar and Shillong.

Indian talisman Sunil Chhetri won the coveted Durand Cup for the very first time in his glittering career, after his side Bengaluru FC defeated Mumbai City FC 2-1 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata last year.

Organised by the Indian Armed Forces, the Durand Cup has been the breeding ground for the country’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.

The tournament is unique wherein the winning team walks away with three trophies — 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 (first presented by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, in 1956).

Over the next one month, the three trophies as part of a ‘Trophy Tour’ will traverse the length and breadth of the country with appearance at some major cities like Shimla, Udhampur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kokrajhar, Guwahati and Shillong before reaching Kolkata for the mega event.