India national football team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India

Nickname

The Bhangra Boys

Association

All India Football Federation

Head coach

Bobby Houghton

Captain

Baichung Bhutia

Most caps

Top scorer

FIFA code

IND

FIFA ranking

148

Highest FIFA ranking

94 (February 1996)

Lowest FIFA ranking

148 (November 2006)

Elo ranking

160





Home kit





Away kit

First international

France 2 - 1 India

(London, England; July 31, 1948)

Largest win

India 7 - 0 Ceylon

(Bangalore, India; December 16, 1963)

Worst defeat

USSR 11 - 1 India

(Moscow, USSR; September 16, 1955)

AFC Asian Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 1964)

Best result

Runners-up, 1964

The India national football team is the national football team of India and is controlled by the All India Football Federation. It is a member of the AFC.

India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. However, they did not take up their place in the competition because FIFA demanded all players at the World Cup finals should wear football boots. A number of the Indian players refused to abide by this rule and the team was forced to withdraw; the team has never since come close to qualifying for the World Cup.

India also finished 4th in the football tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and won the 1962 Asian Games Gold medal, and reached the semi-finals in the next two Asian Games tournaments in what became known as the golden era of Indian football.

More recent successes have been limited to the South Asian Football Federation Cup, and the LG Cup won in Vietnam in 2002 under English coach Stephen Constantine.

Despite lack of international success and high profile players (current captain Baichung Bhutia is the only contemporary Indian to have played professional football, for Bury in the English Football League), the sport is widely followed in several parts of the country, especially Goa, West Bengal and Kerala. Television coverage of matches in the national league has recently started, and the AIFF undertook a 7-year sponsorship deal with Nike in February 2006.^[1]

1 World Cup record
2 Asian Cup record
3 South Asian Football Federation Cup record
4 AFC Challenge Cup record
5 Current players
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1938 - Did not enter
1950 - Qualified by default, but withdrew
1954 - Entry not accepted by FIFA
1958 to 1970 - Did not enter
1974 to 2006- Did not qualify

[edit] Asian Cup record

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 2007 - Did not qualify

[edit] South Asian Football Federation Cup record

1993 - Winners
1995 - Runners Up
1997 - Winners
1999 - Winners
2003 - Third Place
2005 - Winners

[edit] AFC Challenge Cup record

2006 - Quarter Finals (India entered with an under 20s team, coached by Islam Akhmedov from Uzbekistan)

[edit] Current players

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Club
1	GK	Sangram Mukherjee	June 11, 1981	Salgaocar FC
2	DF	N. P. Pradeep		SBT
3	DF	N.S. Manju		Mahindra United
4	DF	Mehrajuddin Wadoo	February 12, 1984	Mohan Bagan
5	DF	Sanjive Maria	September 2, 1980	Mohan Bagan
6	MF	Sampath Kumar Kuttimani		HAL
7	MF	Mehtab Hussain	October 3, 1982	Mohan Bagan
8	MF	Xavier Vijayakumar		HAL
9	FW	Manjit Singh	January 25, 1986	Mohan Bagan
10	FW	Syed Rahim Nabi	December 14, 1985	East Bengal
11	FW	Praveen Kumar		JCT Mills
12	MF	Dharamjit Singh	February 1, 1981	Mohan Bagan
15	FW	Baichung Bhutia	December 15, 1976	East Bangal
16	MF	James Lukram Singh		Mahindra United
17	DF	Surkumar Singh		Mahindra United
19	FW	Abdul Hakkim		SBT
20	GK	Kalyan Chaube		JCT Mills
28	GK	Israt Kamal		Central Railway
29	DF	Deepak Kumar Mondal		Mahindra United
30	MF	Micky Fernandes		Salgaocar FC
?	MF	Shanmugam Venkatesh		Mahindra United