The Mighty Fall And The Painful Decline: India's Ongoing FIFA World Cup Dream Trapped In An 'Offside Of Collapsing Ecosystem'

At a time when a small island country in West Africa, Cape Verde, with a population of just over five lakhs, qualified for the most prestigious sporting event, the FIFA World Cup in the forthcoming 2026 edition. India, on the other hand, are still struggling to perform on the international stage despite being the most populous country on the planet.

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Collapsing Ecosystem And The Tragic Downfall Of Indian Football

Over the last decade, the Blue Tigers hit rock bottom in 2025, a year every Indian football fan would want to forget. It left a bruise that will take some time to heal. Before the year began, fans had high hopes that the team would make a comeback, but those hopes were shattered once again.

In the FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifiers, held in 2024, India were placed alongside heavyweights Qatar, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. The Blue Tigers ended the qualifiers in third place on the standings with five points from six matches. In the qualifiers, India showed a sluggish performance as they failed to clinch a win against 162-ranked Afghanistan, who were considered the weakest in the group.

In the recent FIFA Rankings, India dropped to the 142nd place. India’s highest FIFA ranking was in 1996 when they secured the 94th spot. Since then, many coaches and policies have been changed for the betterment of the sport in the country, but the result has been amounted to nothing and things haven't really changed much.

Whom should we, the fans blame for this tragic downfall? It’s a question that has been running through the minds of every diehard Indian football fan. But no, you can’t just push one person under the bus for the Indian Senior Football Team’s decline. It is a systematic failure, a system that has miserably failed to scout young talent, despite numerous initiatives aimed at discovering youth stars from various parts of the country.

For Indian football fans, supporting the Blue Tigers has become a burden, as reflected in the low turnout of attendance when the team plays at home. The fans are desperate to find answers during this dark time for the national team.

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Here's How The Blue Tigers Performed In 2025

In mid-2025, the Indian men’s football team changed coaches again, with Khalid Jamil taking charge after Manolo Marquez stepped down following poor performances. Jamil became the first Indian coach to lead the Blue Tigers in 13 long years.

Fans also witnessed legendary Indian footballer Sunil Chhetri overturning his decision to retire from international football in 2025, but his presence in the playing XI did not help the Blue Tigers. In 2025, the Blue Tigers played 11 matches. Out of these, they suffered five defeats, managed only two wins, and drew the remaining three games.

As compared to 2024, when the team failed to secure a single win, 2025 at least brought two victories. Under Marquez’s coaching last year, the Blue Tigers scored only four goals, but in 2025, they found the back of the net eight times. Defensively, there was a slight improvement: in 2024, India conceded 15 goals, while in 2025 opponents managed to score only 12 past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

After a disappointing 2024, the only highlight of 2025 was winning the bronze medal in the CAFA Nations Cup after beating Oman in the third-place fixture.

Chhetri’s main reason for making a comeback was to help India perform better in the Asian Cup Qualifiers, but once again, the Blue Tigers failed to make a mark in the tournament. They were placed in Group C of the Asian Cup Qualifiers alongside Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh. India finished at the bottom of the table with just two points from five matches. Even 180th-ranked Bangladesh performed better, clinching a historic win against India on November 18.

Interestingly, as per the stats, India had a better year than 2024, but is it really so? The dream of playing in the FIFA World Cup 2026 remains elusive for the Blue Tigers. No one knows when it will come true, but the dream is still alive. As a legend once said: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”