World Cup: Curaçao can, but we can't — Indian fans' familiar lament is back

Heard of Tahsin Mohammed, Nishan Velupillay, Sarpreet Singh or Samuel Moutoussamy? The quartet are footballers of Indian origin who are part of the FIFA World Cup rosters for Qatar, Australia, New Zealand and Democratic Republic of Congo, respectively — their journeys going viral on social media earlier this week as a sign of India’s tenuous link with the upcoming showpiece in North America.

Every four years, it has become a ritual for the Indian media to dig for such connects while the dream of seeing the Blue Tigers on football's biggest stage looks beyond reach. The refrain of why a country of 1.4 billion cannot qualify for a single World Cup has become a well-worn cliché, reducing India to a nation of ardent followers of the event on TV, while a motley crowd of media personnel will dutifully land up to chase the likes of Messi, Ronaldo or Yamal.

The lament is bound to get stronger ahead of the 2026 edition as with the addition of 16 teams to the fray (the field has expanded from 32 to 48 at one go), the quota of Asian countries has gone up from six to nine, but India was never in the frame, not even close. Looking back, it was in with a realistic chance of making the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in 2024 for the first time with Igor Stimac at the helm, but the team’s goal drought in critical encounters cost it badly. 

Which are the nine teams from Asia to make the cut this year? Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia & Iraq (via inter confederation play-offs), with Jordan and Uzbekistan making their long-awaited debuts. Both are way ahead of India in the current FIFA rankings, with the Uzbeks at 52 and Jordan at 63, while India has gone into free fall in the last one-and-a-half years to world no. 136.

This brings me back to the moot question: after nearly four decades in the profession and never having seen India come close to a World Cup berth, why does it remain a bridge too far? The blind loyalty of fans toward two Latin American giants — Argentina and Brazil — and the idolatry for the likes of Messi and Neymar in states like Bengal, Kerala and Goa will play out again, but to what effect?

This is where the fiasco around Messi's Kolkata visit in December 2025 has some resonance. Yes, the ‘God of football’ was in town, and helped a canny marketeer cash in on the craze to generate millions in profit before an overzealous former minister spoiled the party and threw everything out of gear. A closer look at the fiasco betrays the absurdity of it all, with people of extremely modest means coughing up half their month’s earnings for a fleeting look at the reigning deity, knowing full well that the magician would not even kick a ball.

Speaking in an informal chat with the media during the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in 2022, Sunil Chettri — the then talismanic captain — said there couldn't be shortcuts for a ticket to the World Cup. ‘’We need to take one step at a time and right now, our goal should be to qualify for all Asian Cups as it will help us play against stronger oppositions. Once we can establish ourselves among the top 15-20 Asian countries, then only we can think of raising the bar for the World Cup,’’ said one of India's most prolific scorers of the game.  

Well, Chettri — a generational talent as far as Indian football is concerned — is past his sell-by date and India has floundered in its attempt to make the cut for what would have been a third AFC Asian Cup in a row. There is a new coach in Khalid Jamil, an honest trier but a man with limitations, as it has begun from scratch.

The outlook, frankly, is not positive. Let us then brace ourselves to be couch potatoes again and catch the action on TV, egging on our heroes and occasionally marvelling at the spirit of a country like Curaçao, the smallest nation ever to make the World Cup. And sigh occasionally: ‘’Well Curaçao can, but we cannot!’’