{"id":366976,"date":"2026-07-08T17:07:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=366976"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:08:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:38:06","slug":"durand-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/durand-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Durand Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><b>News: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu unveiled and flagged off the Trophies of the Durand Cup Tournament 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\"><b>About Durand Cup<\/b><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 372px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.indianexpress.com\/2021\/08\/Durand-Trophies.jpg?resize=372%2C373&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Durand Cup\" width=\"372\" height=\"373\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: IE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Durand Cup is the<\/span><b> oldest football tournament in Asia <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the<\/span><b> fifth oldest national football competition in the world.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is unique as the <\/span><b>only football tournament in India organized and managed solely by the Armed Forces<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to promote the sport nationwide.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Establishment:<\/strong> It was<\/span><b> established in 1888 at Shimla <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by<\/span><b> Sir Henry Mortimer Durand,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> then the Foreign Secretary to British India.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was then <\/span><b>exclusively open to British Indian Army personnel<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> serving in India.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> distinguished by its three prestigious trophies: The Durand Cup, The President&#8217;s Cup (formerly the Viceroy&#8217;s Trophy), and the Shimla Trophy.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The President&#8217;s Cup:<\/strong> It was introduced by<\/span><b> Dr. Rajendra Prasad in 1950. <\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>awarded permanently to the winning team.\u00a0 <\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It features a<\/span><b> circular disc atop the Ashoka Lion Capital.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>The Durand Cup:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Durand Football Tournament Society<\/span><b> declared the Durand Cup as a rolling trophy in 1965<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> held by the winner for a year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and returned before the next edition.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>The Shimla Trophy:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It was donated<\/span><b> by the citizens of Shimla in 1904.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This rolling trophy <\/span><b>reflects the strong local support and enthusiasm for the tournament.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\">About Durand Cup Tournament 2026<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 389px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.pib.gov.in\/WriteReadData\/userfiles\/image\/PR107072026YBY0.JPG?resize=389%2C259&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\" DURAND CUP TOURNAMENT\" width=\"389\" height=\"259\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: PIB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was<\/span><b> originally established as a football competition for various departments and regiments <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the Indian Armed Forces and the princely states.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Organised by: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is being organised<\/span><b> by HQ Eastern Command since 2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Present Format: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tournament<\/span><b> follows a league-cum-knockout format.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>National League teams were seeded directly into the league stage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while the <\/span><b>Services Football Champion team<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earned a direct spot in the <\/span><b>quarterfinals.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Present edition: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year is the<\/span><b> 135th edition of the Durand Cup,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which will be held from<\/span><b> 25 July to 23 August 2026 across five host cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014Kolkata, Ranchi, Imphal, Shillong, and Guwahati.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Ranchi will host the tournament for the first time.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>135th edition featured 24 teams<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including <\/span><b>one foreign team representing the Sri Lankan armed forces,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continuing the tournament\u2019s tradition of bringing together<\/span><b> India\u2019s leading clubs, Services teams and international opposition.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu unveiled and flagged off the Trophies of the Durand Cup Tournament 2026. About Durand Cup The Durand Cup is the oldest football tournament in Asia and the fifth oldest national football competition in the world. It is unique as the only football tournament in India organized and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/durand-cup\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Durand Cup<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,12039,7965],"tags":[11872,3590],"class_list":["post-366976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","category-miscellaneous-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-pib","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}