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Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Durand Cup gets a new lease of life

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Durand Cup football tournament has received a new lease of life with Osian's, an art auction house, on Wednesday announcing that it will sponsor the world's third oldest football tournament for a period of five years.

The 119th edition will be called the Osian's Durand Cup 2006 in which 30 teams will take part here from November 6 to 27.

The qualifying would be held from November 6 to 15, pre-quarterfinal league from November 16 to 18 and the quarterfinal league from November 19 to 24, before the semifinals and final.

"We have doubled the prize fund to Rs. 20 lakhs so that even the quarterfinalists can make some money for their effort," said the Secretary of the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS), Lt. Col. Joginder Singh.

With Osian's giving Durand Cup a major makeover, the DFTS has introduced five new awards — best player of the tournament (Rs. 30,000), best player of the final (Rs. 10,000), best coach and goalkeeper (Rs. 15,000 each) and golden boot for the highest goal-scorer.

"We have decided to sponsor the Durand Cup just for the love of the game," said the Osian's Chairman, Neville Tuli. "If all goes well we will be interested in extending the sponsorship to 10 years," added Mr. Tuli, who played club football in England during his decade-long stay there.

Defending champion Army XI and the 2005 runners-up, Sporting Clube de Goa, have been directly seeded into the quarterfinal league.

The final and semifinals will be telecast live on ESPN Star Sports while DD Sports will show the quarterfinals live.

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