The Indian football teams, men's and women's, are going to the Asian Games 2023. This was announced by the Indian sports minister, Anurag Thakur, on Twitter on Wednesday.
Why was this in doubt?
The Sports ministry has a criterion wherein only sports teams that are ranked inside the top 8 in Asia are to be sent to the Asian Games. India are ranked 18th in Asia (and 99th in the world). The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had reportedly decided not to send the team basis this sports ministry guideline - a decision that had been appealed by both the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and national team coach Igor Stimac.
Thakur provided the relaxation saying it was basis their recent performances. Over the past two months, India have won the Intercontinental Cup and the SAFF Championship and have jumped two places in the FIFA world rankings to break into the top 100.
Good news for Indian football lovers!
Our national football teams, both Men's and Women's, are set to participate in the upcoming Asian Games.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, has decided to relax the rules to facilitate participation of both the...
- Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) July 26, 2023
Why is this significant?
There's an air of positivity around the Indian football team at the moment, and the key to sustaining (if not enhancing) it is continued visibility and the Asian Games assures the team of that.
Apart from that, with the cup triumphs and the rankings jump (and a 10-match winning streak), the men's team appear to have momentum on their side and a good showing at the Asian Games would hold them in good stead ahead of the Asian Cup in January next year.
For the women's team, the objective is far simpler -- to get quality playing time and test out their ability against the best in Asia. They missed out on the Asian Cup they hosted last year after a COVID-19 outbreak in their camp (India were the only team affected). They have only played two matches all calendar year - a 1-2 friendly loss to Jordan in March and a 5-0 win over the Kyrgyz Republic in April. This tournament would give them an actual run of competitive matches ahead of the second round of Olympic qualifiers (late in October).
Plus, the teams will have an opportunity to improve upon a rather lacklustre recent record at the Games. India are the third-most successful men's team in Asian Games football but this is the recent record: 26/29 in 2014, 14/24 in 2010, 14/28 in 2006 and 10/24 in 2002.
Meanwhile, the women's team has featured just twice finishing 8/8 in 1998 and 9/11 in 2014. This does, though, add pressure to the teams -- considering the interest levels in the sport right now, an improvement upon these placings is quite important.
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Who could make the team?
The men's team is a U-23 competition typically, but considering the Games were delayed by a year they've made it a U-24 competition. However, three overage players are allowed to be a part of the squad.
Given the constitution of the current men's team, that could be very close to a full-strength team: quite a few of the first team squad are below 24 years of age and with the overage exception being the likes of Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sandesh Jhingan could be included in the squad. Being a U-24 competition, this doesn't affect FIFA rankings.
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A hypothetical starting XI could be: Gurpreet (GK); Ashish Rai, Sandesh, Anwar Ali, Akash Mishra; Suresh Singh, Jeakson Singh; Liston Colaco, Mahesh Singh, Sivasakthi Narayanan; Sunil Chhetri. The women's competition, meanwhile, has no age restrictions. Therefore, India's first team is set to participate in the Games, and a good performance will reflect in the FIFA rankings (India are currently #60).
Could there be any complications?
For the men's team, yes. The ISL calendar last season was a considerably expanded one with more break days and games bunched closer to the weekends. This upcoming season's calendar already faces two major disruptions - the AFC Asian Cup (which will take over the bulk of January) and the preparatory camp for the Cup (which could range from a FIFA-mandated five days minimum to an Igor-Stimac-and-senior-players-requested four weeks).
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With the Asian Games running across two weeks in late September and early October, the ISL calendar could be further disrupted severely: either with a postponement to the start (also considering there will be a need for one more camp ahead of the Games) or with the unavailability of first-choice Indian players for teams across the league for a considerable period of time.
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Of course, the ISL teams could refuse to release the players too, considering the Games are taking place in a non-FIFA-mandated international window and that could result in a very under-strength squad for Stimac to take to China. It's now up to the AIFF, the ISL and its teams to discuss and come up with a solution where neither the domestic first division nor the Indian team's chances at the Games are affected badly.
Meanwhile, considering the paucity of women's competitions in India (the one-month-long Indian Women's League has long since concluded for the season), there are no such complications for the women's team.