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The history of the India national football team dates back to the 1930s. They have never played in the World Cup, although they qualified for one in 1950, but withdrew later on for certain reasons. They have had no entries in the tournament from 1950 onwards. India have never won the final of the Asian Championship but managed their best ever finish by making it to the final in the 1964 AFC Asian Cup. They have only made three appearances since.
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1930–1970
Indian teams started touring Australia, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand in the late 1930s. Soon after the success of several Indian football clubs, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was formed in 1937. The 1948 London Olympics was India's first major international tournament, where a predominately barefooted Indian team lost 2–1 to France, failing to convert two penalties. The Indian team was greeted and appreciated by the crowd for their sporting manner.
India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. But the governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time. Reasons shown by the AIFF included the cost of travel (despite the fact that FIFA agreed to bear a major part of the travel expenses) lack of practice time, team selection issues and valuing the Olympics over the FIFA World Cup.
Although FIFA imposed a rule banning barefoot play following the 1948 Olympics where India had played barefoot, the popular belief that the Indian team refused to play because they were not allowed to play barefoot is not entirely true, according to the then Indian captain Sailen Manna, it was just a story to cover up the disastrous decision of the AIFF. The team has never since come close to qualifying for the World Cup.
The period from 1951 to 1964 is considered the golden era in Indian football. Under the tutelage of legendary Syed Abdul Rahim India became the best team in Asia. The Indian team started the 1950s with their triumph in the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted. India beat both Indonesia and Afghanistan 3–0 to reach the final where they beat Iran 1–0. In 1952, India continued their form by winning the Colombo Quadrangular Cup held in Sri Lanka.
Later that year they went on to participate in the 1952 Olympics, but lost 10–1 to Yugoslavia. As four years earlier, many of the team played without boots. After the result AIFF immediately made it mandatory to wear boots.
India also won three further editions of the Quadrangular Cup Colombo Cup, which were held in Burma, Calcutta and Dhaka in 1953, 1954 and 1955 respectively. India then went on to finish second in the 1954 Asian Games held in Manila.
At the 1956 Olympic Games they finished fourth, which is regarded as one of finest achievements in Indian football. India first met hosts Australia, winning 4–2 with Neville D'Souza becoming the first Asian to score a hatrick in the Olympics and also making India the first Asian team to reach the Olympic semi-finals. They lost 4–1 to Yugoslavia, and lost the third place play-off match 3–0 to Bulgaria.
India later participated in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo where they finished fourth, and the Merdeka Cup 1959 in Malaysia finishing second.
India started off 1960 with Asian Cup qualifiers in which they failed to qualify. India went on to win the 1962 Asian Games where they beat South Korea 2–1 in the final, and two years later finished second in the Asian Cup which was held in round-robin format. India played in the Merdeka Cup in 1964, 1965 and 1966 where they finished 2nd, 3rd and 3rd respectively.
India later played in the Asian Games in 1966 in Bangkok but were eliminated in first round. India took third place in the 1970 Asian Games, beating Japan 1–0 in the third place, play-off but have since qualified for other major tournaments, other than as host, only once after that.
1971–2000
Failure in a series of qualification tournaments meant that the next time India reach a quarter-final stage was as host in the 1982 Asian Games.
In 1984 India qualified for the Asian Cup again, but failed to make any impact. India won gold medals in the SAF Games of both 1984 (in Dhaka) and 1987 (Calcutta). They won the inaugural SAARC Cup in 1993 in Lahore, and finished runner-up in Colombo two years later. By 1997 the competition had been renamed as the SAFF Cup, and India won it in both 1997 and 1999 edition, when they hosted it in Goa.
2000–2010
Although India failed to qualify for the 2004 Asian Cup, the senior team shone in a silver medal-winning performance in the inaugural Afro Asian Games, with victories over Rwanda and Zimbabwe (then 85 places ahead of India in the world rankings) along the way, losing the final by just 1–0 to Uzbekistan.
As a result, Indian football has steadily earned greater recognition and respect, both within the country and abroad. In November 2003, Stephen was named AFC Manager of the Month.
India could not do much not when they lost to Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 2003 SAFF Cup and defeats in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers meant Stephen Constantine was sacked. The LG Cup win in Vietnam under Stephen Constantine was one of the few bright spots in the early part of the 2000s. It was India's first victory in a football tournament outside the subcontinent after 1974. India defeated hosts Vietnam 3–2 in the final despite trailing 2–0 after 30 minutes.
In 2005 Syed Nayeemuddin was appointed as India coach but he was sacked the following year after heavy defeats in 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Bob Houghton was later appointed coach of team in 2006.
His appointment saw a general progress in India’s performances crowned by victory in 2007 Nehru Cup in August 2007. Houghton led India to the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup title as they beat Tajikistan 4–1 in August 2008. Winning the AFC challenge cup eventually qualified them for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time since 1984. He also oversaw the Indian team to its second consecutive Nehru Cup trophy by winning 2009 Nehru Cup.
AFC Asian Cup
In 2011, India started off their campaign by participating in 2011 AFC Asian Cup for which they qualified after 24 years. They were placed in strong Group C along with South Korea, Australia and Bahrain. India lost all three matches but did manage to perform well in patches. Goalkeeper Subrata Pal won a lot of accolades for his performances.
After Asia Cup
India played its first match in 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification on March 21 winning 3–0 against Chinese Taipei, with Jewel Raja Shaikh, Sunil Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua scoring the goals. On March 23 they faced Pakistan. India came from behind and defeated Pakistan 3–1 with Jeje Lalpekhlua scoring 2 goals and Steven Dias scoring one. On March 25 they faced Turkmenistan in their last 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying game and. India drew the game 1–1. The result meant that they finished on top of Group B and qualified for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup. The Indian senior football team defeated Qatar 2–1 in an international friendly before the start of the world cup qualifier against UAE (United Arab Emirates). India went on to lose the qualifying encounter by 5-2 on aggregate over two legs, having contentiously suffered two red cards and two converted penalties in the first 23 minutes of the opening leg, which the UAE won by 3-0. Ever since the Indian national team went on a friendly tour to the Caribbean Islands, which turned out to be very unsuccessful.
India then participated in 2011 SAFF Championship in December 2011 and came out as champions after beating Afghanistan 4–0. This then followed up with India playing a testimonial match for Baichung Bhutia against Bayern Munich on 10 January 2012 with India being beaten 4–0 by the German team.