User:ArsenalFan700/India national football team (Second Uncompleted Draft)

FIFA World Cup
India has never played at the FIFA World Cup finals. However they did qualify for the tournament back in 1950 which was held in Brazil due to all the teams in their qualifying group withdrawing before the qualifiers began but before the official tournament began India withdrew themselves from the World Cup. The All India Football Federation, the governing body of football in India, said that the reason for the withdrawal was because of a lack of proper transportation to Brazil which also led to a lack of preparation for the World Cup.

Since 1950 India has struggled to qualify for the World Cup. In 1954 India were denied the chance to qualify for the World Cup as only three teams were given the chance. Then from 1958 to 1982 India did not enter the World Cup qualifiers. In 1986 however India participated in the qualifiers in which they played six games, won 2, drew 3, and lost 1.

India's best chance to qualify for the World Cup then came in the 2002 qualifiers in which India were placed in Group 8 with the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Brunei. India at the end of six games were only two points away from qualification to the final round of the qualifiers after winning three of their games, drawing two, and only losing once. India also scored 11 goals in that round and only gave away five goals.

AFC Asian Cup
India have participated in only three AFC Asian Cup's and had done considerably well in their very first appearance in the 1964 edition in which the team finished second place in a round-robin style tournament that year losing out to the hosts Israel by two points. Since then India has failed to progress beyond the first round of the Asian Cup.

Current squad
The following players were called up to the squad to play Bangladesh on 5 March 2014.