Archive and auction house Osian have taken over as the title sponsors of the competition and the prize money has been doubled to Rs 20 lakh.
NEW DELHI: A revamped format of the Durand Cup - the oldest football tournament outside Britain - will be in place when the 119th edition of the event gets underway on November 6.
Giving a fillip to the tournament, archive and auction house Osian have taken over as the title sponsors of the competition and the prize money has been doubled to Rs 20 lakh.
The winning team will take home Rs 10 lakh, while the runner-up and losing semi-finalists will get Rs 4 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh respectively.
The tournament will be three weeks long this time, starting with a 20 team knock-out qualifying round, out of which the top sides from the two groups will make it to the pre-quarterfinal stage.
The teams fighting it out in the preliminary stage come from various parts of the country and include four sides from Delhi - Shimla Young, Shastri FC, Hindustan FC and Garhwal Heroes FC.
The two qualifiers will join top teams, such as Mohammedan Sporting, Air India, JCT Mills, Phagwara, and Tata Football Academy, in the pre-quarterfinal stage, an addition to last year's format.
After a round-robin league stage in a two-group format, the top team from each pool will be joined by elite teams like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal from Kolkata, Mahindra United from Mumbai, Sporting Clube-de-Goa and Dempo Sports Club from Goa, and defending champions Army XI.
"There has been lot of interest from teams for participation in this year's competition and we have tried to accommodate as many teams as possible in the draw," Brigadier H P S Dhillon, a top office-bearer in the Durand Football Tournament Society, said.
The longer format will also allow the better teams to fight it out in the later rounds of the championship.
"We did not want good teams to be eliminated due to one bad performance. In this year's format, all teams will have a decent chance," Dhillon said, referring to what happened to Mahindras last year.
The top two sides from the two quarterfinal pools will make it to the semi-finals.
"There will be prize money for teams losing in the quarterfinals as well. In addition, there will be cash awards for the best player of the tournament, player of the match, highest goalscorer in the cup, best coach and best goalkeeper," Chairman of Osian Neville Tuli said.
He said they had signed an initial contract for five years with the sponsors, with an option for renewal.
"We were given a limited time period to conduct this tournament and many interested teams approached us quite late, after the draw had been made. So we could not include them. But we hope to have them next year," Dhillon said.
"We have received written confirmation from teams and are pretty sure that they will not back out at the last moment," he said.
The Ambedkar Stadium, the venue of the matches, has been overhauled, and the turf revamped along with the stands and surroundings to be fit for television, as the quarterfinals will be telecast live on DD Sports and the semifinals and final on Star Sports.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}