The FIFA football World Cup 2026, jointly hosted by USA, Mexico, and Canada, is commencing on June 11 and will last till July 19. It will be watched on TV screens all over the world.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup
https://www.espn.in/football/table/_/league/fifa.world
48 national teams are participating in it, which qualified after preliminary qualifying rounds of matches, but where is India ? Its team is not among the 48.
This is shameful. We have the largest population in the world, yet we could not even qualify, when countries with only a tiny fraction of India’s population have qualified e.g. Curacao ( population 158,000 ), Cabo Verde ( 529,000 ), Bosnia and Herzegovna ( 3.1 million ), Qatar ( 3.7 million ), Panama ( 4.62 million ), Haiti ( 12 million ),Tunisia ( 12.4 million ), Senegal ( 19.4 million ) Ivory Coast ( 33.5 million ), and Morocco ( 38.7 million ). I had not even heard the names of some of these countries.
India finished third in Group A of the qualifiers second round, behind Qatar and Oman, with just one win in six games. Only the top 2 teams qualify to be a participant in the World Cup 2026. In the final qualifying match the Indian team lost to Qatar. Thus, the Indian football team will not be able to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America. In fact India has never played in the World Cup.
Presently India is 173rd in the FIFA rankings, and Indian football is nowhere near international standards.
Why is the position of Indian football so dismal, when Indians were playing football since the 19th century, before many of the Latin American, and even many European teams, were playing ?
When a Judge of Allahabad I witnessed a friendly match in the 1990s between the visiting Mohun Bagan team of Calcutta ( a renowned Indian football team ) and a local Allahabad team. After the match I asked Chuni Goswamy, the well known former Indian captain, who had come as manager of the visiting team, why India did not come upto international standards in football ? He replied that it was because Indians were usually short, and their bodies not robust.
https://www.olympics.com/en/news/can-india-qualify-fifa-world-cup-2026-chances
I was not satisfied with this answer. Maradona was 5’5” tall, and Garrincha 5’7”. But both were world acclaimed footballers.
I think that the real reason is that modern sports requires a lot of financial investment, which is lacking so far as Indian football is concerned. Almost all money for sports in India goes to cricket.
A talented Indian footballer often realizes that if he continues devoting much time to football, he may starve or become a destitute once his football playing years are over. So after some time he opts for some job and gives up football.
If we really wish that Indian football should come upto international standards, to my mind these steps must be taken :
(1) The Indian Sports Ministry and the All India Football Federation ( the supreme body governing Indian football ) must set up teams to search for talent among the youth in India, and offer them incentives to take to serious football.
(2) The talented players must be given financial assistance, physical trainers, the appropriate food and other facilities, and provided the best coaching by hiring some of the world’s best football players who have retired from playing.
(3) They should be sent abroad at government expense to play friendly matches with top level teams, to gain experience of top level football
(4) They must be given some firm assurance that after their playing days are over, they will be given some coaching or other jobs with good salaries.
Without these steps, I am afraid there will be no improvement, and the situation of Indian football will remain as dismal, bleak and gloomy as it is today.
