The 2024 IndianOil Durand Cup group stage will be played from July to 31 August 2024.[1] A total of 24 teams, consisting 13 ISL clubs, 2 I-League clubs, 2 regional league team, 6 Indian Armed Forces teams and 1 Foreign armed force teams, compete in the group stage to decide the 8 places in the knockout stage.[2]
Format
In the group stage, each group is played on a single round-robin format. The table-toppers from each group & two best second-placed teams from group stage advances to the knockout stage.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.
Centralised venues
On 4 July, Durand Cup Organising Committee announced that the tournament would be played across more than one city—4 cities—Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Shillong and Kokrajhar.[2] The six groups were assigned one or more than one centralised venue, with five out of the six groups having at least one of the teams in the group based from the host city, except Group C.
