Exclusive

AFC Women’s Asian Cup: What India can expect

Once into the second round, India should build upon further for qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

ByBiswanath Sinha

Updated 19 Jan 2022, 7:41 am

Representational Image (Photo: Unsplash)
Representational Image (Photo: Unsplash)

India is hosting Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Women's Championship. The competition is also known as the Asian Women's Football Championship and the Asian Women's Championship. Undoubtedly football is the most popular sport globally and the last FIFA Women’s World Cup was a big draw in an unparalleled way. The pundits in India believe that the country’s women's team has a better chance of playing the FIFA World Cup before the men’s team. The top 5 finishers (barring Australia which has qualified as a co-host) of the AFC Asian Cup automatically qualify for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Two more teams qualify to go for inter-continental playoffs for the World Cup. The number of teams participating through qualification rounds in the AFC Asian Cup has been increased from 8 to 12 for this edition. By means of becoming the host, India plays in the main draw. This gives India a golden opportunity to qualify for the ultimate summit in women’s football.

A Reality Check: Indian national women’s football team’s last venture in any tournament was in December 2021 in South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) U-19 Women's Championship. Even though it is an age group tournament, the performance there could be an indicator of the status of football. Indian team lost to Bangladesh 0-1 in the Final played at Bir Sherestha Shaheed Shipahi Mostafa Kamal Stadium, Dhaka. It is a fact that the India U-19 team was completely outplayed by the host country. In the final match Bangladesh had made 15 shots to goal to India’s 1. Currently Bangladesh senior women’s team is ranked 143rd (29th among AFC countries) in the FIFA rankings whereas India ranks 55th (11th among AFC countries). The fact that 4 players from that India squad finally got their place in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup team probably reflects the poor pool of players we possess.

On the positive side, the team has had a fairly fruitful exposure tour of Latin America wherein they played against Brazil, Chile and Venezuela only a month back. Despite the losses there, the team’s composure, stamina and perseverance had attained appreciation from all corners. The team will be deprived of supporters cheering in the stadium owing to the restrictions put in because of COVID 19 protocols, but it will definitely enjoy home advantage in other aspects like familiarity with weather and ground condition. The Indian team is placed in a relatively comfortable group. Please refer to the table below:

Group A: China, Chinese Taipei, India, Iran

Group B: Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand

Group C: Japan, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Vietnam

It will also be interesting to see the rankings of the teams participating in this tournament. The FIFA World and AFC rankings of the participating teams are as below: 

Country

Asian Raking

FIFA World Ranking

Qualifying Group

Australia

2

11

B

Japan

3

13

C

Republic of Korea

4

18

C

China PR

5

19

Advertisement

A

Vietnam

6

32

C

Thailand

7

38

B

Chinese Taipei

8

39

A

Myanmar

10

47

C

India

11

55

A

Philippines

13

64

B

IR Iran

Advertisement

14

70

A

Indonesia

19

94

B

 

DPR Korea (FIFA ranking 10 and AFC ranking 1), Uzbekistan (FIFA ranking 45, AFC ranking 9), ranked above India are not part of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

India’s Chances: India is clubbed in Group A along with China, Chinese Taipei and Iran. In any global competitive tournament, the ranking of the countries does not matter much if the gap in quality is not that great. The Indian women's team had won a friendly match against Chinese Taipei in October 2021. The first two top teams from each group and two best third placed teams will qualify for the quarter-final. India can fancy a win against Iran. A draw with China or Chinese Taipei should see the team through for the quarter-final. In that case India has a potential of facing either Australia or Thailand in the next round. Once into the second round, India should build upon further for qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Players to Watch: Going by the convention, one can assume that India will go for defensive tactics against China and Chinese. It should try to win with a decent margin against Iran. Based on the matches ahead and recent records, the following players will play an important role for India, even though football is a team sport.

Loitongbam Ashalata Devi: The 28-year-old Captain of the team has the responsibility of not only leading the Indian defense but also the entire team. Much of India’s chance of progressing well in the tournament will depend on the skills of Ashalata who is considered as one of the best defenders in Asia. She was nominated for AFC player of the year for 2019. Her qualities can be judged from the fact that the other two nominees were China's Li Ying, part of the national team in the 2019 Women's World Cup in France, and Japanese captain Saki Kumagai.

Ngangbam Sweety Devi: Along with Ashalata, this tireless central defender will probably have the highest number of ball touches in the entire tournament for India. Since playing as part of the team Eastern Sporting Union (ESU), which won the inaugural Indian Women League in 2017, she established herself as one of finest ball players in the Indian circuit. There has been no looking back since then for this 22 year old Imphal player. She will play critical roles in aerial games and set pieces. 

Manisha Kalyan: Undoubtedly one of the best findings of Indian football in the last few years, the host country will depend heavily on Manisha if it envisages moving beyond the group stage. Debuted in 2018 for the Under 17 squad, this striker from Punjab has established herself as the main force to reckon with. She might turn out to be a true replacement for Ngongam Bala Devi, India’s most decorated player who will miss the tournament due to injury. Manisha was nominated as the Emerging Player of the Year by All India Football Federation (AIFF) in 2021. With her dribbling skills and pace she may create havoc for the opposition teams.

What it brings for women football in India:

Of the 19 editions of AFC Women’s Asian Cup, India has played in eight editions. It finished runners-up in 1979 and 1983. India has played a total of 35 matches in the tournament started in 1975. Its records read 16 wins, 3 draws and 16 losses. The last time India played in the tournament was in 2003 when 14 countries participated, and India could not move beyond the group stage.

Indian women football has only evolved since the 1970s. The first Senior National Championship for Women was held in 1975 in Uttar Pradesh. The women’s football then was administered by Women’s Footfall Federation of India (WFFI). In 1991 WFFI was merged with All India Football Federation (AIFF). It is a known fact that women’s football was treated step motherly for decades since its inception. It reached its nadir when in 2009 FIFA delisted India from its Women’s world rankings for being ‘out of action’ for more than 18 months.

Only during 2019-2020 did the team start getting much needed exposure visits to other developed countries and a significant number of matches to play outside India. Given the fact that due to the current pandemic situation most of the national teams did not get ample opportunities to play competitive games, it may not be surprising if many participating teams cause upsets in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. One should not be stunned if India makes it to the top 5 (automatic qualification, barring Australia) or to 7 (then qualification is through playoffs) and eventually make it to the FIFA World Cup 2023 to be played in Australia as this time the number of countries participating in the World Cup is increased from 24 to 32.

Hosting the AFC Women’s Asian Cup will definitely increase the awareness and interest in women’s football in India. The infrastructure created for the tournament will hopefully inspire many young girls and boys to pick up the sport. During the last three years, states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa have seen significant increase in women players participating in state leagues. The AFC Women’s Asian Cup may just help push the momentum further. Once there is a large pool of players, with better technical and financial support coming in, Indian women’s football can see a new dawn.

What is at stake for Manipur:

Arguably independent India’s biggest FIFA event held here was the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017. Manipur, a small state with only 2.80 million populations caught the attention of the entire nation when 8 players from the state made it to the national squad then. Coincidentally there are 8 Manipuri players, again named in the Indian AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 squad. This time, the list may not come as a big surprise though, since Manipur has been 21 times champions of national Senior Women’s National Football Championship out of total 26 editions, and has won it for the last three consecutive years.

The Manipuri players selected are: Maibam Linthoingambi Devi, Sweety Devi Ngangbam, Loitongbam Ashalata Devi, Hemam Shilky Dev, Yumnam Kamala Devi, Nongmeithem Ratanbala Devi, Naorem Priyangka Devi and Grace Dangmei.

Looking at the recent records, the proportion of Manipuri players in the Indian women’s team has only decreased in the recent past. It is an irony that despite having the highest percentage of players in the national squad, Manipur does not feature even in imagination when hosting states for such important events are selected. During the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, West Bengal Government offered FIFA and AIFF 15 acres of land for setting up a world standard stadium and a centre of excellence in Kolkata which is constructed already. During the preparation for the current AFC Women’s Asia Cup, Maharashtra government has announced an allocation of Rs 1,750 crores for a similar project in Navi Mumbai. The first phase of the project is already completed and the participating teams are using the facilities.

Miles Davis has said: “Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing”.

In a rapidly changing world of sports where technology, medicines, sports psychology along with good infrastructure play a critical role; just our passion and love for the world’s most popular sport may not take us to the last mile. We need to evolve with time, and the first thing to make sure of it would be expanding the footprint of girls’ (and boys’) football across the valleys and hills of the land of jewels.

(The views expressed are personal)

Advertisement

First published:

Tags:

women's asian cupAsian Women's Football ChampionshipAsian Football ConfederationAFC

Biswanath Sinha

Biswanath Sinha

Associate Director, Tata Trusts, Mumbai

Advertisement

Top Stories

Loading data...
Advertisement

IFP Exclusive

Loading data...