SILANYASH E2
India Couldn't play because of this
Nickname(s) The Blue Tigers
Association All India Football Federation
Confederation AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation SAFF (South Asia)
Head coach Igor Štimac
Captain Sunil Chhetri
Most caps Sunil Chhetri
Top scorer Sunil Chhetri
Home stadium VariousFIFA
code IND
It is a matter of interest why India did not play the World Cup despite being selected. Some reports have mentioned that India withdrew the name because of the high cost of the long journey. Some have also mentioned that the Indian team is playing barefoot and India did not play after FIFA made a rule that they cannot play in the World Cup with bare feet.
Did India not play the World Cup because of bare feet?
The Los Angeles Times published a blog about this in 2011 where it is clearly mentioned and financial problems are the main reason rather than bare feet.
In 1948, India surprised many with its performance at the Summer Olympics in London, England.
At that time, Indian players played without shoes (some wore socks and many played barefoot). In the first round, India was defeated by France with a narrow margin of 2-1. In that match, India did not allow France to score for 70 minutes.
The game garnered much attention in the 1948 Olympics as India played football at the international level for the first time after independence from Britain.
India attracted a lot of attention by playing with bare feet.
FIFA had made it clear that India could not play barefoot in the 1950 World Cup. As a result, it was said that India withdrew from the World Cup as they could not play barefoot.
Since the 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil, teams from Asia, including Burma, did not play in the qualifiers
The European country Turkey also withdrew its name to visit Brazil showing economic reasons. Therefore, it has been mentioned in the blog that it may be appropriate to withdraw the name from the World Cup citing economic reasons.
There is another opinion about India not being able to visit Brazil due to the economic situation. At that time, the organizers offered to pay most of the expenses for India to go to Brazil, but India did not participate and Asia was not represented in the World Cup.
According to India's Sports Illustrated magazine, the Indian Football Federation had announced that the team would not participate in the World Cup because of 'disagreement in team selection and insufficient time for practice'.
Similarly, in the recently published book 'Box to Box: 75 Years of the Indian Football Team', it has been mentioned how ignorance, short-sightedness, lack of confidence in the players and wrong priorities on the part of the Indian Football Federation (AIFF) cost India a golden opportunity to compete in the World Cup.
Along with India, Turkey and Scotland also withdrew from the World Cup. As a result, although 16 teams were supposed to participate, only 13 teams participated in the World Cup. Instead of these three teams, FIFA invited Portugal, Ireland and France. Portugal and Ireland refused. France initially agreed but later withdrew the name.
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