Introduction
Indian Women’s football has come a long way since its inception, despite facing numerous challenges and barriers. The India women’s national football team represents India at women’s international football competitions and is governed by the All India Football Federation. Under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and governed in Asia by the AFC. India is also part of the South Asian Football Federation. The team was one of the best in Asia in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, when they became runners-up in the 1979 and the 1983 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The Indian women’s national team is yet to participate in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Olympic Games. The present ranking of the team according to the FIFA Women’s World Rankings is 66, the 13th-best team in Asia.
History of Women’s Football in India
Old Years (1975–1991)
Football for women in Asia started later compared to their male counterparts. The seed of women’s football in India was planted in the early 1970s. The first manager was Sushil Bhattacharya, in 1975 and from 1975 until 1991, the administration of the game was in the hands of the Women’s Football Federation of India (WFFI), which comes under the Asian Ladies’ Football Confederation (ALFC) that had recognition from neither FIFA nor AFC. Both organizations continuously tried to dissuade Asian countries from sending teams to these tournaments, for which the first few editions of AFC Women’s Asian Cup seen very few teams. Thus, the 1980 featured two Indian teams (India N & India S), Western Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. India did well enough in all these tournaments under Sushil Bhattacharya. In the next edition of 1981 India achieved third position, defeated by Thailand, and became runners-up in the 1983, edition losing to Thailand again. This was the best chapter for the Indian women team in the Asian platform as since 1983 the performance declined along with mismanagement in the federation. The game was administered by WFFI from 1975 until the early 1990s, when they were absorbed into the AIFF.
1998 Asian Games was first participation for the national team. They were defeated by Chinese Taipei 1–13, before facing the biggest defeat in the history by China PR with an embarrassing scoreline of 0–16.
2010–present
After 2009 sanction by FIFA, the AIFF started to better the condition of the national team and women’s football, which led to commencing SAFF Women’s Championship and also including women’s football in the South Asian Games. The women’s team resumed playing on 29 January 2010 after nearly a year-long hiatus.[10] Indian team earn massive success in SAFF competitions, winning the SAFF Women’s Championship four times in a row without losing a single game. Additionally, they won two gold medals at South Asian Games.
They participated in the qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics in March 2011. In their first match India has beaten group hosts Bangladesh 3–0. In the second round India played Uzbekistan, where they tied the first match 1–1, but lost the second leg 1–5.
India participated for the second time at the Asian games in 2014, but the condition was not better than the previous participation, 16 years back in 1998. Though India defeated Maldives easily with 15–0 score, a similar fate was faced by them in the next two matches, being defeated by South Korea and Thailand with the same score of 0–10.
In August 2018, Indian women national team was invited to participate in Cotif Tournament where clubs and national and autonomous teams participate every year since 1984, held at Valencia, Spain. 2018 Cotif was 35th Anniversary of the tournament. At this tournament they faced 3 Spanish club teams and Morocco. First lost to Fundación Albacete, 1–4, then to Levante UD, 0–5, then the Moroccan side defeated India with a score 5–1, but on the last match India played with maturity, though lost to Madrid CFF with 0–1 score.
In November 2018, India qualified to the second round of 2020 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the first time since the qualifying tournament started for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
For preparation of 2020 Olympics 2nd round qualifiers India played two matches each against Hong Kong and Indonesia winning all four of them 5–2 & 1–0 against Hong Kong and 3–0 & 2–0 against Indonesia respectively. Following these matches India played at the 2019 Gold Cup organised at home, where they won their first match against Iran by 1–0 but lost next two matches to Nepal and Myanmar by 1–2 and 0–2 respectively and failed to reach the final.
In 2022 India lost a match at the SAFF Championship for the first time. They lost against Bangladesh 0–3 in the group stage. The team also lost the semifinal against Nepal 0–1. Thus failing to win the SAFF title for the first time ever.
The India women’s national football team, organised by the All India Football Federation, was revived after being dormant for several years.
Milestones in Indian women’s football
1. 1976: First National Women’s Football Championship held in India.
2. 1980: India plays its first international match against Sri Lanka.
3. 1991: India wins its first international title, the Gold Cup in Sri Lanka.
4. 1995: India hosts the Asian Women’s Championship for the first time.
5. 2000: India wins the South Asian Games (SAG) gold medal for the first time.
6. 2010: India wins the SAG gold medal for the second time.
7. 2014: India wins the SAFF Women’s Championship for the first time.
8. 2016:
– India wins the SAG gold medal for the third time.
– Indian Women’s League (IWL) is launched.
9. 2017:
– India qualifies for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time.
– Bala Devi becomes the first Indian woman to play for a foreign club (Rangers FC).
10. 2019:
– India qualifies for the Olympic qualifiers for the first time.
– India wins the SAFF Women’s Championship for the second time.
11. 2020:
– India reaches the finals of the SAG, losing to Nepal.
– Indian women’s football team achieves its highest FIFA ranking (57).
These milestones highlight the progress and achievements of Indian women’s football over the years.
Conclusion
Indian women’s football has made significant progress, but there’s still a long way to go. With continued support and investment, the team can achieve greater heights and inspire future generations of women footballers.