 "Indian football team")
After many requests and appeals, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs finally relaxed the rules for the Indian football teams to make way for their participation in the Asian Games 2023. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) made it mandatory in 2018 that only those teams will get an entry into the Asiad whose rankings in Asia were eighth or below at the time of sending the entries.
How did the Indian football teams get entry for the Asian Games 2023?
Both the men’s and women’s football teams of India did not have a ranking of eight or below at the time of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and therefore missed it. It was going to be the same for the teams for the Asian Games 2022. As luck would have it, the event got postponed to 2023 due to the Covid outbreak in China. In 2023 the Indian men’s team outperformed all expectations and won the Intercontinental Cup and SAFF Cup back-to-back against fancied West Asian countries like Lebanon and Kuwait.
Good news for Indian football lovers!
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) July 26, 2023
Our national football teams, both Men’s and Women’s, are set to participate in the upcoming Asian Games.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, has decided to relax the rules to facilitate participation of both the…
This built momentum and fans, coaches and federation members alike echoed the voice that sought relaxation in rules for once to keep up the team’s momentum heading into the Asian Cup 2023 and the World Cup qualifiers.
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The voices were heard eventually and on the last date of sending the entries for the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Sports and Youth Affairs minister Anurag Thakur granted the exemption to the Indian men’s and women’s football teams and thus they are now heading to the Asian Games after a game of nine years.
It has not been a memorable journey for Indian football in the continental multi-sport event. Here’s how the Bule Tigers and Tigresses have fared in the Asian Games so far
Men’s Indian football team at the Asian Games
1951 Asian Games- Early success
In the nascent phase of the Asian Games, India was a footballing giant in the continent having participated in and reached the semi-finals of the 1948 Olympics. They performed to their ability and won the gold in a six-team event in the inaugural edition of the games held in New Delhi in 1951.
Post the initial success though the Indian men's team failed to win medals in the next two editions finishing eighth and fourth in the 1954 and 1958 games held in the Philippines and Japan respectively.
1962 and 1970- The last medals
In 1962 the Blue Tigers came back roaring and lost only one game in the tournament. It was in the group stage against South Korea. But the Indian team exacted revenge by winning against the Koreans in the final and claiming the gold medal. It was the team in which legends like PK Banerjee and Chuni Goswami played.
In 1966 the Indian team again failed to make it to the semi-finals but came back well in 1970 to win the bronze medal against a strong Japanese outfit. That was the last time India won a medal in the beautiful game at the Asiad.
The free fall post-1970
1970 was the last Asian Games where the Indian team looked like one of the contenders. Post that things started getting bad. In 1974, the Indian football team finished last in its group and could not move forward. In the next edition, the Blue Tigers did clear the preliminary round, but once again finished last in their group in the next round, falling to make it to the medal contention.
1982 was probably the best year since 1970 and after as India topped the group stages but an 88th-minute goal by Saudi Arabia in the quarter-final saw their exit at home turf. In 1986 the team once again slumped to the bottom of their group in the first round and finished 16th, their lowest-ever finish in the Asian Games history till then.
In 1990 and 1994, Team India did not participate in the Asian Games, marking the first time since the inception of the game that the inaugural gold winners were not part of the competition.
Post the 1994 era: Not a single under 10 finish
In the 1998 games, which was a comeback for the Indian football team at the Asian Games, it managed to win only one game, that too against Nepal. It lost the remaining four games to finish 16th in the 23-team event.
In the Busan Asian Games in 2002, the Indian team did well to win two games against Bangladesh and Turkmenistan to finish second in its group behind China. However, since only one team from each group and two best second-placed teams could make it to the quarterfinals, India failed to move ahead and finished 10th.
In 2006 and 2010, India finished third in their group. The 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. China was a tournament in which there was a round of 16, where apart from the top two teams from the six groups, the four best third-placed teams also made it to the knockouts. India qualified for the knockouts for the first time since 1982. But in the pre-quarters, the Blue Tigers were humbled 5-0 by eventual gold-medal winners- Japan.
2014 was the last edition in which the Indian men’s football team participated at the Asian Games and it also turned out to be their worst finish ever. The team lost 0-5 to UAE and 0-2 to Jordan to crash out at the group stage. In the final rankings, they were placed 26th in a 29-team event.
Indian men's football team's performance at the Asian Games
Indian men's football team's performance at the Asian Games
| Asian Games Edition | Inda's rank in football | Total number of teams |
| 1951 | 01 | 06 |
| 1954 | 08 | 12 |
| 1958 | 04 | 14 |
| 1962 | 01 | 08 |
| 1966 | 08 | 11 |
| 1970 | 03 | 10 |
| 1974 | 13 | 15 |
| 1978 | 08 | 14 |
| 1982 | 06 | 16 |
| 1986 | 16 | 18 |
| 1998 | 16 | 23 |
| 2002 | 10 | 24 |
| 2006 | 14 | 28 |
| 2010 | 14 | 24 |
| 2014 | 26 | 29 |
Women’s Indian football team at the Asian Games
The Indian women’s football team participated in the Asian Games for the first time in 1998. They were hammered by China and Chinese Taipei 16-0 and 13-1 respectively. South Korea beat them 7-0 and the Indian team finished eighth with a goal difference of -35 and 0 points to their name.
The next time India participated at the continental event was 16 years later in 2014 when the Blue Tigeresses won their first game of the competition by beating Maldive 15-0. But they lost by a margin of 0-10 each to South Korea and Thailand respectively to finish third in the group and ninth overall in an 11-team event.
