The Death of Indian Football
This is the death of Indian football for the next three years. I’m not joking. What’s left to fight for? What’s left for us to play for?
At the moment, if you’re not very aware of the Indian football ecosystem, let me tell you there are two very important tournaments for us. One is the AFC Asian Cup, which is the biggest tournament for Asian countries, and one is the World Cup, which India, with its obvious 1.4 billion population, has never qualified for to this day, and there are no signs of that happening either.
So, what becomes our biggest competition to play for? It’s the AFC Asian Cup, where Asia’s best countries compete. This time too, 24 countries were supposed to play,
India ends up in a group with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangladesh, and if you look at the rankings of these three teams, they were way above India.
Today, we played against Singapore, and Singapore beat us 2-1 at our home. Singapore’s ranking is also above ours.
We played our first match against Bangladesh, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
So, the result we got today, a 2-1 loss at home, is a crushing blow for Indian football.
Nothing Left to Play For
Because after this, for the next three years, you have nothing left to play for. If you had qualified for the AFC Asian Cup 2027 in Saudi Arabia, you would have used the next two years for preparation.
What preparation?
Your Under-23 team, where there are brilliant footballers, you would slowly start transitioning them into your senior team. You would transition Sunil Chhetri out.
You have strikers like Sohail Ahmad Bhat, young wingers like Sahan, players like Mohammad Sohail, Vipin Mohan in midfield, defenders like Paramveer, and Ricky Meetei as right-back.
You would transition these players and play them with your senior team in upcoming matches, whether those are qualifiers, the SAFF Cup, tri-nation tournaments, or friendlies.
You would be doing rightful preparation under Khalid Jamil for AFC 2027, and think, the atmosphere would be great if you play in the AFC Asian Cup in 2027, perform a bit better, and make it to the knockouts.
That’s what any Indian football fan would ask for at the moment.
But what did you do?
You made wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision. Everyone needed a scapegoat.
We had to sack the “egoistic” coach because we were absolutely sure that the biggest mistake being made with Indian football was Igor Štimac. And we forgot one fact that in the last five-six years, we played our best football under Igor Štimac, wins against Lebanon, those Iraq matches, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, and those Qatar draws.
We played our best football of the last five-six years under Igor Štimac, and what happened? We became complacent. We thought, brother, we’re playing good football now. We’re winning titles here and there. We’re beating good teams. We became weak. We stopped paying attention to our fitness. Players started getting injured. Our form started dropping.
We started worshipping the ISL as if it were the answer to all our problems, forgetting that real progress comes from grassroots and national team development.
The Missed World Cup Qualifier
When India was playing in the second round of World Cup qualifiers, we were one win away from going into the third round.
And if you make it to the third round, your AFC Asian Cup qualification is almost secure.
But what did we do? We messed it up badly. We messed up against Afghanistan. We thought we’d win that match for sure.
First, we took the away game for granted, a 0-0 draw. Then in the return game, they broke us.
We sacked coaches, removed players, brought in another coach, and nothing improved.
Ultimately, we didn’t make it to the third round of the World Cup, which would have been historic for India.
Then we said okay, we’ll focus on The AFC Asian Cup 2027 — and that didn’t happen either.
Now see what’s happening, India’s next three years are doomed.
Now what will we do? What football will we play? For whom will we play?
The worst part?
These two years we had to prepare for AFC 2027 to give youngsters experience with the senior team are gone.
Now, meaningful football will only happen after 2027, for the 2031 Asian Cup qualifiers.
So what are you doing for the next three years? Farm, brother. Farm.
And the worst thing in 2027, India was supposed to host the AFC Asian Cup.
We could have been the host nation but we said no, we won’t.
We gifted it to Saudi Arabia, and we couldn’t even qualify.
It was a gift, host nations to qualify automatically. We threw it away.
That’s the incompetence of our board and management. Every single decision since 2023 has led us to this disaster.
What We Can Learn from Cape Verde
Cape Verde has a population of 5.9 lakh, the second least populated nation to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
In 2011, their ranking was around 180. FIFA gave them funds to improve, and they used that money the right way. It’s not about population. It’s about vision and integrity.
They invested in infrastructure, coaching, grassroots, and sent players to foreign leagues.
We? We spend it on meetings, trips, and samosas. Cape Verde used funds properly.
And in 2025, they’re going to the FIFA World Cup.
We? We can’t even qualify for the Asian Cup.
Solution?
Simply take a full break. Cut off. You’ve got three years’ time to reset.
First thing: the entire AIFF board resigns.
Completely. Every single one.
Get people who truly care about Indian football development.
Where’s your marketing? Nobody even knew where the match was happening.
Star Sports aired it, nobody knew. You release posters a day before. Stadiums are empty.
Nobody cares because we’ve lost faith. Everyone resigns together. Go home. Keep your politics aside.
Get people who can actually work.
Run state leagues, youth programs, and grassroots football.
Use our unemployed youth; they’ll work harder than you ever will.
They’ll do it for passion, not money. Get good admins, marketing people, logistics, and rightful coaches.
You don’t understand football, we do.
During FIFA windows, how are clubs not releasing players? How is Bengaluru keeping two of the eight called-up players?
How is Jamshedpur not releasing Sahan?
AIFF has no authority over clubs.
If players were released properly, our Under-23s might have qualified for their Asian Cup too. Now even the youth teams are suffering.
Until favoritism remains, nothing will change. Bose, who hasn’t played in six months, starts?
Pramveer, a regular U23 center-back, is benched?
Players like Apuya were left out. Brandon plays the last 5 minutes, Sahal comes after 66 minutes, why?
Wrong management. Wrong selections.
The average ISL salary is 30% higher than Singapore’s league, and we can’t even beat them.
We’re stuffing money in players’ pockets with zero accountability.
Total Reboot Required
Entire AIFF board should resign right now. Quota players look in the mirror, realize you’re the problem, and step aside.
Let young, hungry players take over players who want to fail, try, learn, and win.
Make Under-23 and women’s teams the priority.
Our U17 women beat China 1–0 recently.
Our U17 men are also improving their focus there. If we don’t reform now, we’ll stay stuck in this loop forever.
Bring the right people, use the money right, and stop wasting it on fake events.
We played brilliant football today under Khalid Jamil, great pressing, great start, but lacked quality and composure.We don’t score goals. Two goals in four matches.
The OCI & PIO Solution
We need to allow OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) and PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) to play.
Other nations are doing it, using it as a cheat code and we’re sitting here drinking tea and eating samosas.
AIFF doesn’t even have the guts to tell ISL clubs to release players. Forget bringing OCI players in.
This is a dire scenario. Indian football is dead for the next three years.
Watch my full video breakdown and reaction to this situation here:
Final Words
There will be meaningless tournaments, intercontinental, tri-nation, Fine play them. But honestly, promote the Under-23s to the senior team. Let them gain experience.
The rest is up to God.
