Back in 2009, the Indian women’s football team was delisted from the world rankings by FIFA for being inactive for over 18 months. Cut to 12 years later, the senior women’s national team is all set to participate in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 while the U-17 team would become only the second Indian team to play a FIFA World Cup. Not that India have not played the Asian Cup before but the last time India play in the continental competition, it was way back in 2003.
In the olden times, India women used to be a good team in the continent and for three straight editions from 1979, 1981 and 1983, they finished as the runners-up (1979 and 1983) or earned the third place. However, from 1986 to 1993, India did not even enter the Asian Cup and since then, they’ve never been able to achieve a podium finish again.
From 1995-2003, India played all the five editions but could not move out of the group stage, finishing 10th, 5th, 11th, 9th and 9th, respectively. India were unable to qualify for the 2006 and 2008 edition and due to the delisting from FIFA rankings, they were ineligible for the 2010 edition.
Thereafter, India could not qualify for the 2014 and 2018 editions and now they will be playing by virtue of being the hosts in January 2022.
It is a massive chance for the Indian senior national team to go shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the continent but only time will tell how beneficial it can prove to be for the development of the game in the country.
Come to the FIFA U-17 World Cup, it was founded 14 years ago in 2008 and India could not never qualify for the tournament until they got the chance to host it and hence, participate as hosts. India’s first-ever FIFA World Cup appearance came for the boys back in 2017 when the country hosted the men’s version of the U-17 World Cup and now it’s the turn of the girls.
The members of the U-17 Men’s World Cup 2017 India squad are mostly in Indian Super League teams at the moment but the tournament did little to improve the system from the ground up or better India as a footballing nation. The U-17 men’s World Cup team got at least two years of exposure tours and match time all over the world, for the girls though Covid-19 has ruined that experience and little is known about the team that will take the ground in October.
AFC WOMEN’S ASIAN CUP INDIA 2022
The Asian Cup will kickstart on January 20 at 3.30PM IST at the Mumbai Football Arena with China and Chinese Taipei playing each other. India’s first match will be on the same day at 7.30PM IST at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai against Iran.
India head coach Thomas Dennerby is expected to lock the squad soon as according to the competition regulations, all teams can register a maximum of 23 players and have to complete the squad at least five days prior to their first game.
The players who are expected to make the final cut almost definitely are Aditi Chauhan (GK), Nganbam Sweety Devi, Manisa Panna, Ashalata Devi, Ranjana Chanu, Dalima Chhibber, Ritu Rani, Dangmei Grace, Indumathi Kathiresan, Martina Thokchom, Sanju Yadav, Anju Tamang, Pyari Xaxa and Manisha Kalyan.
Two of India’s best players Bala Devi and Sangita Basfore are not expected to make the final cut. Bala had injured incurred an ACL injury for which she underwent a surgery and is still recovering. Sangita, on the other hand, got an ACL injury following a set of friendlies in UAE and Bahrain.
Dennerby has made his intentions clear that he wants his team to make the quarter-finals but it is going to be a tall ask.
They have lost 11 of their 14 international matches in 2021, under Maymol Rocky and Thomas Dennerby. The team lost all their three matches early in 2021 in the Turkish Women’s Cup and then lost two more friendlies in April. With Dennerby taking charge, India won three of their six matches on their tour to UAE, Bahrain and Sweden. They then went for the International Women’s Football Tournament of Manaus in November, where they faced Brazil, Chile and Venezuela and lost all three.
Manisha Kalyan gave the country a moment of euphoria when she scored a perfect counter-attacking goal against Brazil were apart from that, there was hardly much India could ride home about.
Asian Cup is all set to be a great experience for the national team and India’s football icon Bembem Devi believes that the team will have to put up a collective performance to put up a fight.
“I just want to tell them to play with confidence. Football is collective responsibility and every play must take responsibility of their position and that’s how they can think of some success,” she said.
Bembem believes that hosting the Asian Cup and the U-17 World Cup would bring recognition for our women footballers but the ladies will have to perform and work hard.
FIFA U-17 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2022
The U-17 World Cup was earlier supposed to be held in 2020 but coronavirus wrecked havoc across the world and it was postponed to 2021. With vaccines not available for kids below 18 years of age and Covid-19 still confining people to their homes last year, the tournament was cancelled and the hosting right of the 2022 edition was given to India.
The tournament is now all set to be hosted from October 11-30 but the venue is yet to be finalised. So far, Japan, North Korea and New Zealand are the only nations to have qualified with India already in the mix by being the hosts.
Age group women’s football in India is almost non-existent with the national teams usually formed before AFC or SAFF tournaments. India recently played in the U-19 SAFF Women’s Championship and lost 1-0 to Bangladesh while being dominated by the neighbours throughout the match.
The U-17 batch that was selected for the earlier edition of the World Cup is now dissolved and ineligible and not much is known about the squad that will represented the country 10 months later.
The squad is expected to train in Jharkhand but there has been little information released by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) regarding the same. Since Dennerby is currently with the senior team, information is expected to come out only after he joins back the U-17 team post the Asian Cup.
EXPECTATIONS FROM THE BIG-TICKET TOURNAMENTS
The U-17 World Cup is referred to in terms of pushing the course of development of football in the country. Currently, apart from the Subroto Cup and Khelo India U-17 League, there’s hardly much for the younger girls to look forward to.
According to FIFA, gametime is the most essential component to development of any footballer right from the grassroots and India severely lacks that, especially for younger girls.
In India, the senior women play two major tournaments – Indian Women’s League and the Senior Women’s National Championship – both run for less than a month. Then there are the state leagues, which are run as the qualifiers for the IWL and are not conducted in a regularised manner.
For the junior girls, there’s just the Subroto Cup and just an edition of Khelo India U-17 Girls League so far.
The national team players and the AIFF have time and again said that the two tournaments would give valuable experience to the players and open avenues for more of women’s football in the country.
However, The U-17 Men’s World Cup has shown that hosting a big ticket tournament does not essentially solve the structural issues. The need of the hour is immense focus on grassroots development with the right ethos. If the girls, through these two tournaments, can grab some eyeballs, may be the country will see some investment on the most important part of the pyramid, which is the bottom.
Bembem spoke strongly against the disparity in payment to the women footballers in the country and the need for more tournaments.
There are plenty of problems plaguing the Indian football system and while the big-ticket tournaments may grab eyeballs for the game, it will always be up to the stakeholders to dig out the bad plants from the roots and make sure they don’t spoil the soil.
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