India women's national football team

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[5][6] and from 1975 till 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 (Asian Football Confederation). 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 other unofficial tournaments seen very few teams to participate and thus the 1980 Calicut edition of Asian Championship featured two Indian teams (India N & India S), Western Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.[7] India did well enough in all these unofficial tournaments under Sushil Bhattacharya and India S become runners-up at Calicut. In the next edition of 1981 India achieved third position, defeated by Thailand and again 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 and failing to promote the games at all level in every state of India. The game was administered by WFFI from 1975 until the early 1990s, when they were absorbed into the AIFF as despite their impressive display at the Asian level, women's football in India went into the state of gloom by the end of the eighties due to the previous federation failure of promoting the women's football to the level it had deserved.[8]

But the AIFF too did very less to lift the women's football from their meager condition. It was the time when FIFA conceptualized and organised FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991 and International Olympic Committee started the women's competition at 1996 Summer Olympics. Time and again, the AIFF officials stated that lifting the standard of women's football to the level of their Asian counterparts was their chief aim but they never backed up their words with actions. AIFF was treating women's football as an extra burden was a fact which was hidden from no one but it became evident when they failed to sponsor the team's first foreign trip in 1997 to Germany before the Asian Championships. Eventually, the trip was made possibly with the help of the German Football Association and NRI's living in Germany.[9]

1998 Asian Games was first participation for the national team but came out to be nightmare as they defeated by Chinese Taipei with a score line of 1–13 in the second match and again on the 3rd match they faced the biggest defeat in the history by China PR with an embarrassing scoreline of 0–16.

The women's game reached a new low in June 2009 when FIFA delisted the side from its world rankings for being out of action for more than 18 months.[10] From 1991 to 2010 the performance of the Indian team was very poor, participating in just 5 editions of Asian Championships, 2003 as their last participation in which they faced a repeated embarrassing defeat with 0–12 scoreline from China PR. FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympics participation is yet be a reality for the Indian team.

After 2009 sanction by FIFA, the AIFF started to put their minds in place 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.[11] Indian team earn massive success in SAFF competitions. Winning the SAFF Women's Championship four times in row without losing a single game. Additionally they won two gold medals at South Asian Games.

On 17 December 2014, AIFF Secretary Kushal Das stated that the goal for women's football from 2014 to 2017 was to increase the ranking of the India senior team to the top 40s and the top 8 in Asia, start a professional women's league by 2015, and to qualify for both the U19 and U16 versions of the AFC championships.[12] which is now far from reality as India is 60th by FIFA World Rankings and 13th among the Asian countries and yet to qualify for AFC Women's Asian Cup since 2003, FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic Games.

They participated in the qualifiers for the 2012 Olympics in March 2011. In their first match they beat rivals and group hosts Bangladesh 3–0. In the second round India Women played Uzbekistan where they tied the first match 1–1 but lost the second leg 1–5 and were officially knocked out. Again for Rio 2016 Olympics they participated in the AFC qualifiers, first match was a win defeating Sri Lanka with score 4–1 then shocking defeat from Myanmar with a score line 0–7 which led the way out from the qualifiers.

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, but a similar fate of Maldives was faced by them in the next two matches where they were defeated by both 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.[13] 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.[14][15]

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.[16][17] Following these matches India played at the Women's 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.[18][19][20]

The India women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as "The Blue Tigresses".

Indian women's team shares rivalry with their neighbours Pakistan and Nepal. While the rivalry with Nepal is merely due to footballing reasons, the one with Pakistan is due to tense bilateral relations.

There is unfortunately no television coverage for the team currently. While some of the games are streamed online on Facebook Live or YouTube.

India  v  Iran

20 January AFC Asian Cup GS	India	0–0 (Voided)	Iran	Navi Mumbai, India
19:30 UTC+5:30		Report		Stadium: DY Patil Stadium Referee: Lara Lee (Australia)

Chinese Taipei  v  India

23 January AFC Asian Cup GS	Chinese Taipei	Cancelled	India	Navi Mumbai, India
19:30 UTC+5:30		Report		Stadium: DY Patil Stadium

India  v  China PR

26 January AFC Asian Cup GS	India	Cancelled	China PR	Mumbai, India
19:30 UTC+5:30		Report		Stadium: Mumbai Football Arena

India  v  Egypt

5 April Friendly	India	1–0	Egypt	Zarqa, Jordan
22:00 UTC+3	Priyangka 32'	Report		Stadium: Prince Mohammed Stadium Attendance: 100 Referee: Haneen Murad (Jordan)

Jordan  v  India

8 April Friendly	Jordan	0–1	India	Zarqa, Jordan
22:30 UTC+3		Report	Manisha 48'	Stadium: Prince Mohammed Stadium Attendance: 350 Referee: Osama Hasan (Jordan)

• Official Fixtures and Results – The-AIFF.com
• Fixtures and Results – Soccerway.com

As of 20 January 2022[21]

Position	Name
Head Coach	Thomas Dennerby
Assistant Coach	Priya Parathi Valappil
Goalkeeper Coach	Rajat Guha
Strength and Conditioning Coach	Jane Törnqvist

As of 9 April 2022, after the match against  Jordan.

Name	Years	Played	Won	Tied	Lost	Win %
Sushil Bhattacharya	1975–	35	16	3	16	45.71
Harjinder Singh	2005[22] −10	9	2	0	7	22.22
Mohammad Shahid Jabbar	2010–13	21	19	1	1	90.48
Anadi Barua	2013–14	4	2	1	1	40
Tarun Roy	2014–15	8	6	0	2	75
Sajid Dar	2015–17	15	8	3	4	53.33
Maymol Rocky	2017–2021	35	18	4	13	51.43
Thomas Dennerby	2021–	9	5	0	4	55.56
Totals		137	76	13	48	55.47

Note: Only FIFA 'List A' matches are considered.

The following 23 players were named in the final squad for the Friendly matches against  Egypt and  Jordan.[23]

As of 8 April 2022, after the match against  Jordan.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Aditi Chauhan	(1992-11-20) 20 November 1992	50	0	Gokulam Kerala
	1GK	Shreya Hooda	(1999-05-25) 25 May 1999	1	0	Gokulam Kerala
19	1GK	Sowmiya Narayansamy	(2000-07-25) 25 July 2000	2	0	Sethu
17	2DF	Dalima Chhibber	(1997-08-30) 30 August 1997	31	2	Gokulam Kerala
2	2DF	Nganbam Sweety Devi	(1999-12-01) 1 December 1999	28	0	Kickstart
21	2DF	Ritu Rani	(1997-05-25) 25 May 1997	2	0	Gokulam Kerala
4	2DF	Loitongbam Ashalata Devi (Captain)	(1993-07-03) 3 July 1993	66	4	Gokulam Kerala
	2DF	Sorokhaibam Ranjana Chanu	(1999-03-10) 10 March 1999	12	3	Gokulam Kerala
3	2DF	Manisha Panna	(1991-04-20) 20 April 1991	15	0	Sports Odisha
	2DF	Thounaojam Kritina Devi	(2003-02-10) 10 February 2003	0	0	Indian Arrows
9	3MF	Anju Tamang	(1995-12-22) 22 December 1995	30	2	Sethu
13	4FW	Sandhiya Ranganathan	(1996-05-20) 20 May 1996	12	8	Sethu
20	3MF	Karthika Angamuthu	(2000-01-01) 1 January 2000	2	0	Sethu
7	3MF	Nongmaithem Ratanbala Devi	(1999-12-02) 2 December 1999	31	14	Gokulam Kerala
14	3MF	Naorem Priyangka Devi	(2003-04-09) 9 April 2003	1	1	Indian Arrows
8	3MF	Sanju Yadav	(1997-09-12) 12 September 1997	35	7	Sethu
	3MF	Martina Thokchom	(2004-07-13) 13 July 2004	8	0	Indian Arrows
11	4FW	Dangmei Grace	(1996-02-05) 5 February 1996	45	12	Gokulam Kerala
	3MF	Soumya Guguloth	(2001-01-18) 18 January 2001	9	0	Gokulam Kerala
16	4FW	Manisha Kalyan	(2001-11-27) 27 November 2001	17	4	Gokulam Kerala
10	4FW	Pyari Xaxa	(1997-05-18) 18 May 1997	10	4	Sports Odisha
15	4FW	Renu Rani	(2001-01-16) 16 January 2001	3	0	Sethu
18	4FW	Mariyammal Balamurugan	(2003-01-01) 1 January 2003	3	0	Sethu

The following players were named to a squad in the last 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Maibam Linthoingambi Devi	(1999-02-02) 2 February 1999	5	0	Kickstart	NT camp, March 2022
DF	Wangkhem Linthoingambi Devi	(1995-03-01) 1 March 1995	3	0	Kickstart	NT camp, 2021
DF	Michel Castanha	(1992-12-23) 23 December 1992	2	0	Sethu	NT camp, 2021
DF	Astam Oraon	(2005-02-05) 5 February 2005	1	0	Jharkhand	NT camp, March 2022
DF	Hemam Shilky Devi	(2005-11-23) 23 November 2005	2	0	Young Welfare	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup
DF	Jabamani Tudu	(2000-04-10) 10 April 2000	10	1	Sports Odisha	NT camp, 2021
MF	Indumathi Kathiresan	(1994-06-05) 5 June 1994	40	10	Tamil Nadu Police	NT camp, March 2022
MF	Sangita BasforeINJ	(1996-07-12) 12 July 1996	33	3	SSB Women	NT camp, 2021
MF	Heigrujam Daya Devi	(2000-04-04) 4 April 2000	6	0	Young Welfare	NT camp, 2021
MF	Sumithra Kamaraj	(1994-07-05) 5 July 1994	5	2	Unattached	NT camp, March 2022
MF	Apurna Narzary	(2004-01-08) 8 January 2004	0	0	Indian Arrows	NT camp, March 2022
FW	Sumati Kumari	(2004-01-15) 15 January 2004	0	0	Jharkhand	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup
FW	Bala DeviINJ	(1990-02-02) February 2, 1990	58	52	Unattached	NT camp, 2020
FW	Karishma Shirvoikar	(2001-08-04) 4 August 2001	1	0	Gokulam Kerala	NT camp, March 2022
INJ Withdrew due to injury PRE Preliminary squad / standby RET Retired from the national team SUS Serving suspension WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

• Maria Rebello (1998–2001)
• Oinam Bembem Devi (2003–2016)
• Sradhanjali Samantaray (2005)
• Sasmita Malik (2011)
• Tuli Goon (2014)
• Bala Devi (2016–2018)
• Loitongbam Ashalata Devi (2018–present)
• Aditi Chauhan (2019)

FIFA Women's World Cup record
Host/Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD
1991	Did Not Enter
1995
1999	Did Not Qualify
2003
2007
2011	Did Not Enter
2015	Did Not Qualify
2019
2023	Withdrew From Qualification
Total	0/9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

AFC Women's Asian Cup record Host/Year Result Position Pld W D* L GF GA GD 1975 Did Not Enter 1977 1980 Runners Up 2nd 7 4 2 1 8 3 +5 1981 Third Place 3rd 5 3 1 1 15 1 +14 1983 Runners Up 2nd 6 4 0 2 11 5 +6 1986 Did Not Enter 1989 1991 1993 1995 Group Stage 10th 3 0 0 3 3 12 −9 1997 Group Stage 5th 3 2 0 1 13 1 +12 1999 Group Stage 11th 4 1 0 3 3 12 −9 2001 Group Stage 9th 4 1 0 3 3 13 −10 2003 Group Stage 9th 3 1 0 2 7 14 −7 2006 Did Not Qualify 2008 2010 Did Not Enter 2014 Did Not Qualify 2018 2022 Originally qualified as host, but withdrew due to COVID-19 pandemic inside the team[lower-alpha 1] Total 9/19 0 Titles 35 16 3 16 63 61 2 Notes: India failed to name the required 13 players and were unable to play their match of the group stage against Chinese Taipei due to them having only fewer than 13 players left with the remaining team members testing positive for COVID-19. They were considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all previous matches played by them were considered "null and void" and would not be considered in determining the final group rankings.[24]

AFC Women's Asia Cup History Year Round Score Result 1980 Round 1 India S  2–0  Western Australia Won India S  2–0  Hong Kong Won India S  0–0  Chinese Taipei Draw India S  1–0  India N Won India S  0–0  Malaysia Draw Semi-final India S  3–1  Hong Kong Won Final India S  0–2  Chinese Taipei Loss 1981 Round 1 India  5–0  Singapore Won India  8–0  Philippines Won India  0–0  Hong Kong Draw Semi-final India  0–1  Thailand Loss 3rd Place India  2–0  Hong Kong Won 1983 Round 1 India  5–0  Philippines Won India  1–0  Hong Kong Won India  3–0  Malaysia Won India  1–2  Thailand Loss India  1–0  Singapore Won Final India  0–2  Thailand Loss 1995 Round 1 India  0–1  Uzbekistan Loss India  0–6  Japan Loss India  0–5  South Korea Loss 1997 Round 1 India  3–0  Hong Kong Won India  0–1  Japan Loss India  10–0  Guam Won 1999 Round 1 India  0–7  North Korea Loss India  3–0  Malaysia Won India  0–3  Vietnam Loss India  0–3  Chinese Taipei Loss 2001 Round 1 India  0–7  South Korea Loss India  0–5  Chinese Taipei Loss India  0–1  Thailand Loss India  3–0  Malaysia Won 2003 Round 1 India  6–0  Uzbekistan Won India  0–12  China PR Loss India  1–2  Vietnam Loss 2022 Round 1 India  0–0  Iran Voided India  Cancelled  Chinese Taipei Cancelled India  Cancelled  China PR Cancelled

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

At 1979 AFC Asia Cup India placed two teams, India Senior(India S) and India Novice(India N), other version called as India North and India South.

Asian Games record Year Result Position Pld W D* L GF GA GD 1990 DNP 1994 1998 Group stage 8th 3 0 0 3 1 36 −35 2002 DNP 2006 2010 2014 Group stage 9th 3 1 0 2 15 20 −5 2018 DNP Total 2/7 0 Titles 6 1 0 5 16 56 -40

Asian Games History Year Round Score Result 1998 Round 1 India  0–7  South Korea Loss India  1–13  Chinese Taipei Loss India  0–16  China PR Loss 2014 Round 1 India  15–0  Maldives Won India  0–10  South Korea Loss India  0–10  Thailand Loss

• DNP: did not participate
• DNQ: did not qualified

Bold Positions show best finish in the tournaments.

India has won the SAFF Women's Championship five times in a row.[25]

SAFF Women's Championship record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD
2010	Winners		5	5	0	0	40	0	40
2012	Winners		5	5	0	0	33	1	32
2014	Winners		5	5	0	0	36	1	35
2016	Winners		4	3	1	0	11	3	8
2019	Winners		4	4	0	0	18	1	17
Total	5/5		23	22	1	0	138	6	132

India has won the South Asian Games three times.

South Asian Games record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD
2010	Winners		5	5	0	0	29	2	27
2016	Winners		5	3	2	0	14	1	13
2019	Winners		4	4	0	0	14	0	14
Total	3/3	3 Titles	14	12	2	0	57	3	54

Red border indicates, India had hosted the games.