Despite apathy, history: India secure stunning direct qualification to AFC Women's Asian Cup

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Sangita Basfore wept.

She didn't just 'cry'. She lay on the pitch of the Chiang Mai stadium in Thailand as the full-time whistle blew and wept, the kind of emotional release that said it all.

Her national teammates swarmed around her, a chaotic mess of happy cheers and tears. They had just become the first Indian women's football team in history to qualify for the AFC Women's Asian Cup on merit, and Sangita's brace in a 2-1 victory had led them to the promised land.

'On merit' is the key phrase here - the last time India featured in the competition properly, they had qualified as hosts, and that tournament had soon turned into a farce. Indeed, the Indian team had to battle a number of farces through the last few years.

The nightmare of Indian women's football

January 2022 - What was supposed to be the Indian team's crowning moment as hosts of the AFC Asian Cup turned into quite the embarrassment as they were kicked out of the tournament after Covid-19 outbreak ran through the squad, having only played a single group stage game. Thomas Dennerby's team had high hopes - even going so far as World Cup qualification - but saw their journey cut short. Months and years later, players revealed that the experience gave them sleepless nights, and they struggled to look back at that Asian Cup with any fondness.

June 2022 - A coach of the U-17 women's football team, Alex Ambrose, was suspended for alleged misconduct with a minor player. That case is stuck in bureaucratic red tape, and the AIFF was only too glad to quietly sweep it under the rug.

September 2022 - The Indian women's team lost out on the SAFF Championships, going down to Nepal in the semifinals.

October 2022 - The same U-17 team from which Ambrose was removed, now coached by Dennerby, suffered humiliating defeats in the FIFA U-17 World Cup that India hosted in Bhubaneswar, going out in the group stage after losing all three matches.

May 2023 - The Indian Women's League was held in appalling conditions that necessitated 4 AM wake-up calls, heat that left players needing medical treatment on the sidelines, poor food and lodging. It was capped off by the AIFF barely affording champions Gokulam Kerala a few minutes with their trophy before being ushered away for a prize-giving ceremony for a state-run youth tournament.

September 2023 - The Indian women's national team finished at the bottom of their Asian Games group with losses to Chinese Taipei and Thailand.

November 2023 - The national team finished bottom of the Olympic qualifiers group as well, with a goal difference of -12.

October 2024 - The national team lost out on the SAFF Women's Championship yet again, once more losing to Nepal in the semifinals.

April 2025 - The IWL was once more treated as nothing more than a checkmark, with barely any promotion of Indian women's football's top-tier competition.

Why this qualification means more

Looking at that list above it's simply incomprehensible how the Indian women's national team was even able to function. The AIFF hadn't helped matters with a spate of coaching changes - Dennerby was followed by Suren Chhetri, Chaoba Devi, even Santosh Kashyap (a grand total of three games). Swede Joakim Alexandersson came in for a bit and found himself with the youth sides. Crispin Chhetri finally took over this year, with Priya PV as his assistant.

AIFF Media

Not much was expected from the team when it landed in Thailand for the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers a week or so ago. A majority of the squad still carried scars of the Covid-19 tournament; the likes of Hemam Shilky Devi, Lynda Kom, Martina Thokchom were even part of that U-17 team that dealt with the Ambrose issue.

For years India's women footballers had toiled in a league that their own federation didn't give two hoots about, for years they turned up for a national camp with no idea if the coach would even be around the next time. For years, they had worked in a system that could not even guarantee their safety in the confines of their own rooms.

The victories on the pitch were rarer still - even as the men's national team grabbed headlines for a downward spiral, the women's slide stood away from the spotlight. And still they persevered - making the best of what little that was afforded them. The likes of Manisha Kalyan, Soumya Gugoloth and Jyoti Chauhan put their egos aside and even went for trials set up by European clubs, earning them contracts and in Manisha's case, the honour of becoming the first Indian to score in the UEFA Champions League. Even those that remained in the I-League took what little football was afforded to them and blossomed.

Sangita Basfore was the star for India, scoring a brace in the stunning 2-1 win over Thailand AIFF Media

The luck, and the results for the national team, however, didn't come. So even when Priya PV stood on the sidelines and saw her team defeat Mongolia 13-0, Iraq 5-0 and Timor Leste 4-0 in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, expectations remained low. Thailand stood between India and AFC Asian Cup qualification - a higher-ranked team that played in two recent FIFA Women's World Cups, were being coached by the pedigree of Futoshi Ikeda of Japan, and boasted plenty of players with overseas experience.

India had no right to come to this game on equal terms - their opponents were the superior side, and on the pitch, it showed. Twice the hosts hit the woodwork, and still India held on. Sangita's first goal was a volley that came from the edge of the box. Her second goal that proved to be the winner, was her ghosting into the centre of the box and flicking on a header into the net. The defensive midfielder, like her teammates, was playing with a freedom that belied all the misfortune this team had underwent in the past. "I had Sunil Chhetri's words to us in my mind - 'Remember why you started playing football.' We are senior players - this could be our last chance to feel, and qualify for the World Cup," said Sangita after the game.

��️ Sangita Basfore: It's not just about the Asian Cup! The World Cup is our target. ��#WAC2026 #BlueTigresses #IndianFootball ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/M0CFBqseLs - Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) July 5, 2025

This victory is of particular significance to Sangita, because while the rest of her teammates carried the scars of that AFC Asian Cup from 2022, she had one of a different kind. A mainstay of the Indian team since 2019, she was robbed of the opportunity of featuring in that tournament due to an ACL injury. It kept her out of football for over a year, and she also lost her father during that spell. Fighting her way back to the national team, enduring all the misery of Indian women's football over the last few years, to then guiding the national team to the AFC Asian Cup in Australia 2026 - where eight of the 12 teams could qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

It's no wonder she wept. Like many success stories in Indian sport, this was one that was achieved despite the system, not because of it. And that perhaps, is a reason why the Indian sporting fan should also weep. While our sporting heroes remain ones who have to toil against the odds, it does not reflect well that the ones placing those odds are our own.

This isn't a victory for the AIFF, not in the very least. It solely remains a victory of those 23 footballers, who gave their blood, sweat and tears (and in Soumya Gugoloth's case, even her parts of her nasal bone) in service of their nation. They deserve better.

Because they'll give us better, scars and all. Come Australia 2026, you can bet on the likes of Sangita, Manisha, Soumya and co. doing their best, against the continent's best.

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