The Indian football team is 105th in the latest FIFA rankings. Under head coach Igor Stimac, India recently played their FIFA world cup 2022 qualifiers. The result is that India again failed to qualify for the FIFA world cup but qualified for the third round of AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers.
Let us have a look at the qualifying process for the FIFA world cup. AFC (Asian Football Confederation), to which India belongs, has four direct slots and 0.5 indirect slots in the FIFA world cup according to the present format. There is a total of 46 confederations under AFC. The qualification process involves four rounds.
Twelve teams ranked from 35-46 play home and away over two legs in the first round. The six winners advance to the second round.
In the second round, 40 teams (6 winners of round1 and top 30 teams) are divided into eight groups of five teams to play home and away matches. The eight group winners and 4 best runners up advance to the third round.
In the third round, 12 teams that advanced from the second round are divided into two groups of six teams to play home and away round-robin matches. The top two teams from each group qualify for the world cup.
One of the third-placed teams can also enter the world cup if they win round 4 and an inter-confederation match.
So to play in the FIFA world cup, India needs to feature in the top 4 in Asia. This time India got knocked out in the second round of qualifiers and managed to get only 7 points from 8 matches.
To develop football players in the country, grassroots development is a must.U10, U12 tournaments must be organized every year, which some ISL clubs have started. Indian coaches must also be trained so that one of the Indian coaches can manage the national team in the future.
Indian players do not get much playing time in ISL. All clubs play foreign players at vital positions such as center forward and center back, and hence there are very few Indian players developed in these positions. The player playing as a striker in his youth career gets to play on wings in the ISL. Hence 3+1 rule is essential if Indian players are to be developed.
In 2019, Igor Stimac was appointed by AIFF as a head coach of the Indian national team. He was unaware of Indian football before that, so he took time to select his squad, to understand the mentality and capabilities of Indian players.
India under Stimac struggled to win against lower-ranked teams like Bangladesh and Afghanistan. AIFF brought Stimac to bring modern-style football that is possession-based football for the national team. But Stimac couldn't implement it properly in the FIFA world cup qualifiers. Most Indian players play possession-based football at their respective clubs in ISL, but they failed to do so in the national team.
AIFF has extended Igor Stimac's contract till September, and it will be interesting to see whether they extend his contract further or not.
So instead of bringing the foreign coaches who are unaware to Indian football, Indian coaches, for example, Bibiano, Khalid, or the foreign coaches who previously managed teams in India, can be given the post of the head coach.
India u16 team under the head coach Bibiano Fernandes reached the quarter-finals of the AFC u16 championship in 2018 and also qualified for the 2020 AFC u16 championship as a group winner. But the problem is that the same set of players when playing at u19 or u23 level is not the same. If AIFF promotes u16 coach to u19 or u23 level and if the results are good, they can also give him the charge of the head coach of the senior national team in the future.
In FIFA world cup 2026, 48 teams will participate, and AFC will get direct 8 slots in the world cup. So if India wants to qualify for FIFA WC 2026, we will have to feature in the top 8 in Asia in the qualifiers. The qualifying process may change for 2026 as more teams are qualifying, but India will still have to be among the best in Asia to qualify.
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