This low point in the rankings scale comes around after a week in which India’s hopes of reaching a third consecutive AFC Asian Cup were undone, beaten by Singapore to be mathematically out of contention from qualifying into the main draw for the 2027 tournament. Along with elimination from qualification for next year’s FIFA World Cup, India’s presence on the world stage of international football grows blurrier and blurrier.

India had cracked the top 100 of the FIFA world rankings in July 2023, but it has been an absolutely torrid run since then: the Blue Tigers last won a competitive football match in November 2023, which means they are winless outside of friendly competition in nearly 2 years.

India struggle with uncertainty and external pressure

This is a period that has also seen a lot of upheaval within Indian football, on both an administrative and coaching level. The lack of certainty and solidness behind the scenes has contributed to India’s struggles: coach Igor Stimac was replaced by Manolo Marquez, but the Spaniard was unable to right the ship before he too was shown the door.

Khalid Jamil comes in as the first Indian coach for the team in over two decades, and while he has shown signs of improvement in play, the results continue to go against India. With plenty of question marks and doubts surrounding domestic football in recent months to boot, it has been a year for India to forget – but the goal will be to stop this slide down the rankings, and then meticulousloy build their way back up into a strong position.

It is better news for the women’s teams, where the senior squad has won four matches in a row to get a strong start to the Women’s Asian Cup qualification campaign, and stop their own slide down the rankings. Meanwhile, the U-17 women’s team sealed qualification to the U-17 Asian Cup for the first time in 20 years.