For India, World Cup qualification is still just a distant dream

July 28 : As the World Cup reached its final week, Gourav Roy, an Indian software engineer living in San Francisco, drove more than 6,000 miles across the United States to attend both semi-finals and the final.

For Roy, it was the next best thing to what he had grown up dreaming of: seeing India play the World Cup.

But the possibility of that dream coming true is looking ever more distant as deep-rooted systemic issues and the failure to implement reforms have left the country of 1.45 billion ranked a lowly 138th in the world, failing to even qualify for next year's Asian Cup.

"I've learned to love without expectation. That's the burden of the Indian football fan," said Roy.

While countries with tiny populations like Curacao and Cape Verde qualified for the 2026 World Cup, India remains a prime example of wasted potential in the world's most popular sport.

Those working in Indian soccer say the problems range from poor youth development systems, lack of popularity and a national federation (AIFF) struggling to implement a uniform vision with a loose patchwork of state associations.

"If you ask me, to clean up the system and reorganise it will take a full cycle of four years," Ravi Puskur, the CEO of Indian Super League (ISL) club FC Goa, told Reuters.

"Then it's another 20-25 years to get us to the World Cup."

CONFINED TO POCKETS

In cricket-mad India, soccer remains popular only in a handful of states like West Bengal, Goa, Kerala, Mizoram and Manipur.

The ISL, launched in 2014 with the backing of Reliance Industries, one of India's biggest conglomerates, tried to change that with limited success.

In 2025, the AIFF and Reliance did not renew their partnership as negotiations stalled amid a Supreme Court case to implement a new