From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
- 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
- 1993 - Winners
- 1995 - Runners Up
- 1997 - Winners
- 1999 - Winners
- 2003 - Third Place
- 2005 - Winners
- 2006 - Quarter Finals (India entered with an under 20s team, coached by Islam Akhmedov from Uzbekistan)
[edit] Current players
[edit] External links
|
|
|
|
| Competitions in Indian football |
|
|
France 2 - 1 India 
USSR 11 - 1 India 
