Another World Cup dream slips through the cracks of boardroom incompetence

India's Women's Asian Cup exit was more than a defeat. Administrative chaos, from ill-fitting jerseys to poor preparation, pushed another World Cup dream out of reach.

"Yeh haath mujhe de de Thakur!"

The famous line from Sholay usually gets a laugh. But when you watch Indian football closely these days, it almost sounds like the fans saying it to the administrators. Hand us the system for a bit. Maybe we will run it better.

Because once again, a football dream has not really died on the pitch. It has quietly slipped away somewhere between poor planning, strange decisions and a federation that continues to score its own goals.

India’s campaign at the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026 ended with a 1–3 defeat to Chinese Taipei at the Western Sydney Stadium. With that result, India crashed out of the tournament and their hopes of inching closer to the FIFA Women's World Cup were pushed further away yet again.

The numbers are ugly. Three matches, three defeats, two goals scored, sixteen conceded. Losses to Vietnam, Japan and Chinese Taipei meant India finished bottom of the group.

But numbers rarely tell the full story.