Football in India

British soldiers introduced football into India in the mid-nineteenth century.[9][10] Games were initially played between army teams but clubs were soon set up around the country. In 1872, Calcutta FC was the first football club to be established, though the side may have originated as a rugby club that switched codes as late as 1894. Other early clubs include Dalhousie AC, Traders Club and Naval Volunteers Club.[11] Several other football clubs such as Sovabazar, Mohun Bagan and Aryan Club were established in Calcutta in the 1890s. Calcutta was then the capital of British India and soon became the hub of football. Tournaments like the Gladstone Cup, the Trades Cup and the Cooch Behar Cup were started around this time.[12] The Durand Cup and IFA Shield were both started in the late nineteenth century.

The first Indian team to achieve success was Sovabazar Club, which won the Trades Cup in 1892. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, which was set up in modern-day West Bengal in 1889, became famous in 1911 when it became the first Indian team to win the IFA Shield, a tournament previously won only by British teams based in India. They defeated East Yorkshire Regiment 2–1 in the tournament's final in a victory that is still regarded by many as the greatest win by an Indian team before independence.

Players of Baroda Football Club, an Indian-European team, 1910–11.

The Indian Football Association (IFA) was established in Calcutta in 1893 but had no Indians on its board until the 1930s. The All India Football Federation (AIFF), the national governing body of football in India, was formed in 1937 but did not become affiliated with FIFA until at least a decade later. India insisted on playing barefoot whereas other national sides wore boots.[13] Footballer Jyotish Chandra Guha brought global attention to Indian football when he became the first Indian to appear with the English Football League club Arsenal in 1930.[14]

India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil because all of their scheduled opponents withdrew. India did not compete in the tournament. It was not because of a lack of financial assistance, particularly to purchase tickets for the sea journey, or because the team were not allowed to play barefoot.[13][15] According to sports journalist Jaydeep Basu, the financial barrier was solved as state associations provided financial help to the AIFF and that FIFA also promised to provide money.[8]

FIFA had imposed a rule banning barefoot play following the 1948 Olympics where India had played barefoot. According to then-captain Shailen Manna, this story was circulated to justify the AIFF's decision to not participate. Since 1950, the Indian national team has not come close to qualifying for the World Cup.[15][16][17][18] The AIFF had organised training is Calcutta for the 1950 World Cup and the board organised a series of meetings relating to India's participation but was not able to reach a decision. One to two weeks before the World Cup, the AIFF resorted to coming up with excuses to abandon the World Cup trip. This did not face much criticism in 1948 because the FIFA World Cup was not as popular as it is now.[8]

1951–1962 is widely considered the "golden age" of Indian football. In this period, the national team won numerous titles under the coaching of Syed Abdul Rahim. India won the gold medal in the first Asian Games in 1951, beating Iran by one goal. In 1956, no longer playing barefoot, India reached the semi-final in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, becoming the first Asian country to do so and ranking fourth in the tournament. In 1962, India again won the gold in the Asian Games at Jakarta, defeating South Korea 2–1.[13] [8] India also won the Merdeka Cup and the Quadrangular Tournament, while East Bengal garnered good reviews after touring Romania. Also in 1951, India achieved their highest World Football Elo Rating of 31. According to former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, India is "the sleeping giant of world football".[19]

Rahim's death in the early 1960s caused the Indian national team to gradually lose their position as a top Asian team. India has not qualified for the Olympics since 1960.[13] India qualified for their first Asian Cup in 1964 but failed to win the title. In an international tournament at the 1970 Asian Games, India won the bronze medal after defeating Japan 1–0. The Indian national team qualified for the 1984 AFC Asian Cup for the first time since 1964 but failed to qualify for the knockout stage after finishing last in their group of five teams.

The Indian youth team jointly won the Youth Asian Cup with Iran in 1974, the first and only title for India at the youth level. In club football, on 24 September 1977, Mohun Bagan held onto a 2–2 draw at the Eden Gardens stadium in Calcutta, against a Pele-led New York Cosmos. Mohun Bagan would have won the tie had it not been for a controversial penalty awarded to the visiting team that ensured the draw. The next day, the newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika described Goutam Sarkar as "India's very own Beckenbaur".

The Indian women's team as they began playing in the 1970s. In 1975, their first manager was Sushil Bhattacharya.[20][21] The Indian women's team were runners-up in the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 1980 and 1983. In the 1990s, the women's team rapidly declined and a series of defeats followed. In 2009, FIFA delisted the Indian women's team from the world rankings.[22]

In August 2007, the Indian national team won the Nehru Cup for the first time, beating Syria 1–0.[23] In August of the following year, India defeated Tajikistan 4–1 to win the AFC Challenge Cup and qualified for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. In August 2009, India again won the Nehru Cup, beating Syria on penalties (6–5).

In January 2011, India played in the 2011 Asian Cup, the country's first Asian Cup for 24 years. India was eliminated in the group stage, which included South Korea, Australia, and Bahrain.

Since the 2011 Asian Cup, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been working to improve Indian football. They allowed former coach Bob Houghton to coach the Indian team in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers. After going first in their AFC Challenge Cup group, Houghton was replaced by Wim Koevermans. The India national under-23 football team won the first round of the 2012 Olympics qualifiers against Myanmar but were eliminated by Qatar. India played their next official matches against United Arab Emirates in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which India lost on aggregate 5–2.

In 2014, India hosted the first Unity World Cup in Goa, Hyderabad and Bangalore. India has participated in and hosted the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament. This was the first time a team representing India participated in the finals of a FIFA-organised world tournament. India was placed in Group A along with the United States, Ghana and Colombia. On 6 October 2017, India played their first match in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in front of 47,000 people against the United States, losing the match 0–3. India played their second match against Colombia. In the 82nd minute, Jeakson Singh became the first Indian goal scorer in the finals of a FIFA-organised tournament. For the third match of the group stage, India played Ghana, losing the match 4–0 and finishing at the bottom of Group A.[24]

In 2018 Indian youth football teams made history by defeating Argentina U-20 2–1 in the COTIF cup, as well as Iraq U-16, the defending champions of the AFC U-16 Championship (now the AFC U-17 Championship), by 1–0. The U-16 team qualified for the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship, where they came close to qualifying for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, but lost to South Korea by a single goal in the quarterfinal.[25]

The Indian national team qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup after missing the 2015 edition. India beat Thailand by 4–1, their biggest-ever win at the Asia Cup and their first win in 55 years.[26][27] Nevertheless, they lost both of their next two group matches against UAE and Bahrain by 0−2 and 0−1 respectively[28][29] and finished at the bottom of the group, thus failing to move to the knockout stage.[30]

The following list includes the performance of all of India's national teams at major competitions.

The Indian senior national team had several successes during their initial years but is no longer considered one of the best in Asia. The national team's highest achievement is winning two gold medals at the Asian Games.

The women's national team was started in the 1970s; they were twice runners-up in the Women's Asian Cup in the early 1980s. After the AIFF took charge of the team, they began to suffer massive defeats and declined in the late 2000s. In the late 2010s, the AIFF revived the team to empower women's football and the team performed well in a large number of friendlies. The AIFF won the hosting bid for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

Includes them U-19 and U-18 teams' performance.

Includes the U-16 and U-15 teams' performance.

Includes the U-19 and U-18 teams' performance.

Includes the U-16 and U-15 teams' performance.

The I-League, which was promised to be a professional league, soon lost popularity due to poor marketing.[31] A deal between Zee Sports and the AIFF, which was initially to be a ten-year term in 2006, was terminated in 2010 after a disagreement between the parties. The AIFF then signed a ₹700-crore deal with Reliance Industries and the International Management Group (IMG) on 9 December 2010.[32] The Indian Super League (ISL) was officially launched on 21 October 2013 by IMG–Reliance Industries, Star Sports, and the AIFF to grow the sport of football in India and increase its exposure in the country with big names and professionalism.[33] Large corporations, Bollywood stars and cricketers between them bought eight franchises.[34]

In 2017, the AFC opposed allowing the ISL to become the main league in India, but the I-League clubs East Bengal and Mohun Bagan wanted a complete merger of the ISL and I-League.[35] Two weeks later, the AIFF proposed the Indian Super League and I-League would simultaneously run on a short–term basis, with the I-League winner qualifying for the AFC Champions League and the ISL champion reaching the AFC Cup qualification stage.[36] The AFC approved this proposal on 25 July 2017, with the ISL replacing the domestic cup competition, the Federation Cup, which was a true knockout cup competition.[37]

Two seasons later, the AIFF and AFC met again to determine the future for Indian football. After the meeting, it was announced the Indian Super League would become the top-tier league with the AFC Champions League slot while the I-League was now the domestic cup tournament with the AFC Cup slot. The AFC also made some key recommendations: the first was to open a pathway for two I-League clubs to enter into the ISL by the end of the 2020–2021 season, subject to certain criteria being fulfilled. The second recommendation was to allow the winner of the I-League a chance of promotion to the ISL with no participation fee, with the AIFF defining the basic fulfilling sporting merit and the national club-licensing criteria starting in the 2022–2023 season. The final recommendation was to introduce promotion and relegation into the top league by the end of the 2024–2025 season, and to abolish the existence of two parallel leagues.[38]

Starting in the 2022–2023 season, I-League lost its top-tier status. The champions of the 2022–23 I-League were promoted to the ISL with no participation fee. As per the AFC's recommendation for 2024–2025, it was agreed the AIFF would fully implement promotion and relegation between the two leagues.[39]

After demoting I-League to the second tier status in Indian football, I-League 2 was subsequently demoted to the third tier. AIFF renamed the 2nd Division to I-League 2 to avoid disambiguation.[40]

I-League 3 is set to serve as a platform for state champions and state-nominated teams. No ISL reserve teams can be a part of I-League 2 or I-League 3.

There are currently a total of 37 state associations (including union territories) affiliated with the AIFF.[41] These state associations are affiliated with state leagues. The top teams of state leagues are eligible to apply for I-League 3. Some state leagues have multiple divisions and a promotion/relegation system between these divisions. Calcutta Football League in West Bengal is the oldest state league and has the highest number of divisions (seven divisions) with a promotion/relegation system in place.[42]

The Federation Cup (Fed Cup) is an annual, knockout-style, club football tournament in India that started in 1977. Until I-League's inception in 1997 (then called the NFL), it was the most-prestigious, national-level, club football tournament in India. Previously, the winning club of the Fed Cup had a chance to compete at the continental level in the AFC Cup along with the I-League champion team. The Fed Cup has been discontinued since the 2017–2018 season when a new Super Cup was inaugurated.

In 1888, the Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as the Durand Cup, was started by India's foreign secretary Mortimer Durand at Simla. The Durand Cup's initial matches were played in Dagshai and was created as a form of recreation for British troops stationed in India. The Durand Cup was suspended during World War I and World War II. In 1940, the tournament's venue was shifted to New Delhi.

The Super Cup is a knockout football tournament. The top six teams from the two top-tier leagues, the I-League and the Indian Super League qualify directly for the main round of the competition. The bottom four clubs from each league participate in a qualification round to compete.

The IFA Shield is an annual football competition organized by the Indian Football Association (IFA) in West Bengal. It was started in 1893, and is the fourth-oldest club cup competition in the world after the FA Cup, the Scottish Cup and the Durand Cup. Along with local clubs in Bengal, clubs from other parts of India and from overseas are able to participate in this tournament.

The Santosh Trophy, also known as the Senior National Football Championship, is an annual Indian football tournament contested by states and government institutions. The trophy is named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh. The first winners were Bengal, who also lead the all-time winners list with 32 titles to date.

On 21 April 2016, over a year after the AIFF started plans for a women's football league, AIFF president Praful Patel said a women's football league would begin in October 2016 with six teams, and was planned to be expanded to eight teams by 2017.[48] On 5 July 2016, the AIFF organized a workshop to discuss the India women's national team and the proposed women's football league. Indian Super League sides Delhi Dynamos, Chennaiyin FC, Kerala Blasters, FC Pune City and Atletico de Kolkata, and I-League teams Bengaluru FC, Aizawl FC and Mumbai FC attended the workshop. It was announced the league would consist of the eight teams in the league and two other teams would be chosen through a pre-qualification round.[49]

On 14 October, the AIFF announced the preliminary rounds for the Women's League would begin on 17 October 2016; ten teams are split into two groups of five teams and the winner from each group qualifies for the national finals.[50]

The Nehru Cup was an international invitational association football tournament organised by the AIFF and named after the First Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.

Editions	Winners
1982	Uruguay
1983	Hungary
1984	Poland
1985	Soviet Union
1986	Soviet Union
1987	Soviet Union
1988	Soviet Union
1989	Hungary
1991	Romania
1993	North Korea
1995	Iraq
1997	Iraq
2007	India
2009	India
2012	India

The Tri-Nation Series is a three-team football tournament organised by the AIFF. The first edition was held in 2017.

Editions	Winners
2017	India
2023	India

The Intercontinental Cup is a four-team association football tournament organised by the AIFF. The first edition was held in 2018.

Editions	Winners
2018	India
2019	North Korea
2023	India

• Goal (2007)
• Maidaan (2023), upcoming Hindi movie of Ajay Devgn about Indian football's golden era of the 1950s.
• List of movies made on 'Football sport' in India
• List of Indian sport movies