The domestic season of Indian football will begin with the Durand Cup. At Salt Lake Stadium, Asia’s oldest soccer club competition began on August 16, with Mohammedan SC defeating FC Goa 3-1 in the opening match. The title was won by Goa last year when they defeated Mohammedan in the final. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are the two most successful teams in the Durand Cup’s history, which began in 1888. Both teams have shared in 16 Durand Cup victories. The Durand Cup, Asia’s oldest-running football tournament, will play its 131st season in 2022, making it the first-ever to get recognition from the Asian Football Confederation. Due to its financial ties to Indian Oil Corporation, it is known as the Indian Oil Corporation of India Durand Cup. This year, the competition will be hosted in several new locales. The organization in charge of holding the competition is the Durand Football Tournament Society, and the Eastern Command of the Indian Armed Forces, as well as the governments of Assam and Manipur, support it. Each club in the top Indian Super League was required to participate in the competition for the first time this year, along with five more carefully picked teams from the I-League and four military teams. The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata, West Bengal, hosted the quarterfinals on September 23 and the championship game on October 3, respectively, for the 2021 Durand Cup’s elimination round. Eight teams participated in the elimination round. 

A maximum of Twenty clubs are playing, divided into four categories of 5 squads each. To qualify for the quarterfinals, every group’s highest ranked 2 squads have to win.