India national football team records and statistics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of Indian national football team's all kinds of competitive records.
The India national football team represents India in international football and is controlled by the All India Football Federation. Under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and governed in Asia by the AFC, the team is also part of the South Asian Football Federation. The team, which was once considered one of the best teams in Asia, had its golden era during the 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, under the coaching of Syed Abdul Rahim, India won gold during the 1951 and 1962Asian Games, while finishing fourth during the 1956 Summer Olympics.
India has never participated in the FIFA World Cup, although the team did qualify by default for the 1950 World Cup after all the other nations in their qualification group withdrew. However, India withdrew prior to the beginning of the tournament.
India has never participated in a FIFA World Cup.[1] After gaining independence in 1947, India managed to qualify for the World Cup held in 1950. This was due to Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines withdrawing from qualification.[1] However, prior to the start of the tournament, India themselves withdrew due to the expenses required in getting the team to Brazil.[1] Other reasons cited for why India withdrew include FIFA not allowing Indian players to play in the tournament barefoot and the All India Football Federation not considering the World Cup an important tournament compared to the Olympics.[1]
After withdrawing from the 1950 FIFA World Cup, India didn't enter the qualifying rounds of the tournament between 1954 and 1982.[2] Since the 1986 qualifiers, with the exception of the 1990 edition of the tournament, the team started to participate in qualifiers but have yet to qualify for the tournament again.[2]
India has never played in finals of a FIFA World Cup.[1] The closest they came to qualify was back in 2002 when they were a point away from progressing in to the final round.
The results only include matches considered as FIFA A matches. Other matches played against Club teams, Underage sides or Olympic teams are not included here. Updated as of 14 October 2021 (vs Nepal).[23][24][a]
^ Although there is some conjecture regarding the status of a number of games, the table includes all fixtures recognised by FIFA as "A" internationals and as such is used to recognise caps, goal scorers, captaincy records, etc.. For example some matches in the sites like RSSSF and worldfootball.net has some errors. Some matches like the RSSSF recognizes the two matches against Sri Lanka at the 1964 Olympic qualification, but is not recognized by FIFA and worldfootball.net doesn't recognizes some matches like one against Soviet Union in 1955 but FIFA does recognizes it. Some matches like in the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup is recognized by worldfootball.net but not recognized by FIFA. The following table contains only matches recognized by FIFA. This list is the most accurate and certainly varies from tables in other cites.