India Need To Lay Off Their Obsession With FIFA Rankings

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After a great run as one of the top 100 footballing nations as per the FIFA rankings, India have started their descent and it's not looking good. According to the new FIFA rankings for February, they are currently sitting in the 117th place.

That is a 15-spot drop from last month's 102nd-placed rankings. However, it's not a surprise after the heartbreaking end to their AFC Asian Cup campaign in January. It was the worst run in the tournament's history for the Blue Tigers.

The Indian football team could not progress from the group stages. They had it coming considering neither could they get a single win in all three group matches nor could they score a single goal against any of those teams in their group.

One notable point is they had some of the toughest Asian nations pitted against them. They had to survive against Australia, Syria, and Uzbekistan. However, their defeats against the Asian giants have some deep underlying causes that the team should focus on.

The Blue Tigers saw a meteoric rise in the FIFA rankings in 2016-17 from World No. 173 to 101 in a space of six months under former coach Stephen Constantine. The dramatic hike in the rankings was down to three matches played by India in the space of six months, where defeating a higher-ranked Puerto Rico (114 then) helped them earn crucial ranking points.

This was followed by comfortable victories over India's usual lower-ranked rivals such as Nepal, Macau, and Cambodia, helping India rise to World No. 96 in 2017. While the improved rankings had the nation talking about the Blue Tigers for the first time in decades, AIFF, under its former president Praful Patel, made it a point to maintain the ranking at least, if not improve.

Whether it's the fear of ugly defeats or major drops in FIFA rankings, the nation avoided playing higher-ranked outfits. Co-incidentally playing in the third round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers during that period also helped as no nation in the group was ranked higher than India.

To break it down further, India faced a higher-ranked opponent just four times under Constantine since the win over Puerto Rico in 2016, two of which came at the AFC Asian Cup 2019 in UAE. Alike the Asian Cup 2023 debacle, India dropped places in the rankings after the group stage exit in 2019 UAE as they went out of the top 100.

India's AFC Asian Cup campaigns time and again have proved that shying away from higher-ranked opponents won't help India when it matters.

Change in attitude with Igor Stimac's arrival

The positive change in terms of facing higher-ranked opponents came with Igor Stimac coming in 2019. India played the likes of North Korea, UAE, Bahrain, and Oman among others in friendlies or AIFF-organised tournaments soon after the Croatian took charge.

The results, often, left a bitter taste in the mouth as the quality of their rivals led to unwanted scorelines and a further drop in FIFA ranking. For instance, India lost 6-0 to the UAE and 0-3 to the likes of Belarus, Vietnam and Qatar.

However, the outcomes showed the Blue Tigers the mirror of where they stand in the continent while the coach and senior players were often heard stressing the continuing need to play higher-ranked opponents in build-up to facing Australia in AFC Asian Cup, their toughest opponent in the last four years.

"The more we play against the Uzbek, Australia, UAE, Qatar, Japan, Korea, the more answers we are going to get, how much we are improving," Sunil Chhetri told RevSportz before the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar.

"...Without disrespecting the SAFF Cup, we have won it. But where we want to reach, we will not reach if we keep playing SAFF nations. And this is with due respect to all SAFF nations. You play Qatar, UAE, Palestine, and Lebanon, which is from 10 to 14 to 8 (in Asian Rankings), and then you start punching above your weight and start getting a game against Australia, Japan, and South Korea."

Qatar, in fact, set the standard high in the continent for a side that made a group-stage exit in 2015 before becoming reigning two-time champions in the subsequent editions. The Maroons, who also didn't refrain from poaching talents from abroad, came out of their comfort zone and played some of the higher-ranked opponents in the build-up to the 2019 Asian Cup.

The immediate outcome was a fall in FIFA rankings, which also saw them briefly fall behind India at World No. 102 in 2017. However, facing European and top-quality Asian nations regularly eventually prepared them for a big-ticket event like the Asian Cup. The result is there for all to see in the longer run as Qatar are ranked World No. 37 as of today.

However, the point of this article is for India to ditch their obsession with the FIFA Rankings if they wish to reach new heights or have a fighting chance to do so against the likes of Australia; even if that means they will have to sit through some unsavoury results for some time and a further drop in ranking.

The coming months are going to be crucial in that approach as Igor Stimac and side are aiming to script history by reaching the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time, where they will come across all the top nations in the continent.

Positive results in the remaining second-round matches against Afghanistan, Kuwait and Qatar are imperative and require the best of preparation. However, the gruelling demand of ever-growing Indian domestic football means AIFF could only squeeze in a seven-day training camp while no friendly matches are lined up as preparatory between March and June.Taking Indian football forward is harder said than done.