The represents
India in international
Football . It is a fledgling team ranked 118th in the
FIFA World Rankings . The current coach is
Syed Nayeemuddin , who has taken over from Sukhwinder Singh. However, qualification for the
Asian Cup or the
World Cup seems some distance away.
The Indian team enjoyed much better times, having qualified for the , but withdrew after being refused permission to play barefoot. India also finished 4th in the football tournament at the
Melbourne Olympics . Neville D'Souza became the only Indian Player to score a hattrick in the olympics against Australia. India also took part in the 1948,1952 amd 1960 Olympics. India won the Asian games Gold medal in the year 1962, in 1966 they finished 4th and in 1970 they finished 3rd. This was known as the golden era of Indian soccer. India won their first major trophy outside the sub-continent when they clinched the SAFF cup in vietnam in 2002 under English coach Stephen Constantine. For Constantine, it was his first tournament, but unfortunately, his last successful one. Poor performances led to his sacking 3 years later. India also managed to finish in 2nd position in the first ever Afro-Asian games held in India in the year 2003.
India is a soccer powerhouse in the SAFF region. They have won the
South Asian Football Federation Cup 4 times in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2005. In 1995 and 2003 they finished 2nd.India is getting international recognition by signing a 7 year deal with Nike,Inc. in 2006.
Government apathy, the rise of
Cricket and poor sponsorship have led to the lack of quality players from India. However, the sport is widely followed in most parts of the country. Most of the teams in the India league come from the soccer crazy states of Goa and Bengal. Other states where soccer is popular is Manipur, Kerala and Punjab. With television coverage just coming in for the national league, it seems like things will change for the better. The current captain is
Baichung Bhutia from
Sikkim . Bhutia is the only contemporary Indian to have played professional football, for
Bury in the English
Football League .
- 1930 to 1938 - ''Did not enter''
- 1950 - ''Qualified, but withdrew''
- 1954 to 1970 - ''Did not enter''
- 1974 - ''Withdrew''
- 1978 - ''Did not enter''
- 1982 - ''Did not enter''
- 1986 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1990 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1994 to 2006 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1956 - ''Did not enter''
- 1960 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1964 - Second place
- 1968 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1972 to 1980 - ''Did not enter''
- 1984 - Round 1
- 1988 to 2004 - ''Did not qualify''
- 2006 - Quarter Finals ''(India entered with an under 20s team, coached by Islam Akhmedov from Uzbekistan)''
- http://www.the-aiff.com - Official Website of the All India Football Federation
- http://www.indianfootball.com - India's Premier Football Website
