Why India Don't Participating in the FIFA World Cups?

Many football fans have a question that has not been answered yet about why India doesn't take part in the FIFA football competitions. This will form the concern for this article.

India has a strong presence in various fields, not the least football, especially when exclusively at the FIFA World Cup tournaments.

Indian culture was influenced by decades of British colonialism, and although both football and cricket originated in Britain, Indians preferred the latter to the beautiful game.

The Indian national football team appeared in the 1930s, and since then it has not been able to appear in the World Cup finals. 

In the following lines, according to my research and findings, I have made these attempts to answer the question, "Why isn't India participating in the FIFA World Cup competitions?"

• Does India Use Magic in Football?

With the emergence of social media platforms and even before the advent of the Internet, there remains a widespread use across the world depicting the reasons for that; a story emerged among social media users about the role of magic in the Indian national team's absence from the World Cup.

The popular story is that the Indian national team defeated Brazil 10-0, and after an investigation into the strange and unexpected result, it was proven that the Indians had used witchcraft, which led to them being banned from playing football at the international competition levels. Is there any concrete evidence for this?

There is no evidence to support this story, or any other story regarding the Indian national team resorting to witchcraft.

• Why India Don't Participate in the FIFA World Cup

It may intrigue you to know in 1950 India qualified for the World Cup for the first and only time. The competition was hosted in Brazil, according to reliable reports.

The Indian team qualified automatically after all its competitors in the qualifying group (Indonesia, the Philippines and Burma) withdrew.

However, the Indian national team itself withdrew from participating in the finals, due to the high cost of travel to Brazil, as well as the local football association's desire to focus more on the 1952 Olympics.

According to some reports, one of the reasons for India's withdrawal was FIFA's refusal to allow Indian players to play barefoot.

• How Many Times Has India Won the World Cup?

It is a mirage to think of a country like India to have attempted to win the FIFA World Cup competition at any time in history, especially as the Indian football team has never had any appearance in any FIFA World Cup competition. Not even once.

After withdrawing from the 1950 World Cup, the Indian national team was punished by being excluded from the qualifiers for the next edition in 1954, and decided not to participate in the qualifiers between 1958 and 1982.

From 1986 to 2022, the Indian national team participated in the World Cup qualifiers on a regular basis, but was also unable to advance beyond them.

It's worth noting that the Indian national team, in general, has never achieved any notable accomplishments with regard to international football games, with its best result in the Asian Cup being a runner-up, which was finished in the 1964 edition.

• Countries That Don't Participate in the World Cup

Currently, the national teams of more than 200 FIFA member countries around the world participate in FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The qualifiers result in 32 teams qualifying for the finals, noting that the number will increase to 48 teams starting with the 2026 World Cup.

Still, it's not surprising that India is among the countries not participating in the FIFA World Cup, come 2026.

It's worth noting that 79 countries have previously participated in the World Cup finals, and the number was expected to reach 80 with Qatar's debut appearance in the 2022-concluded FIFA World Cup competition.