The team has also appeared four times in the AFC Asian Cup, Asia's top football championship and finished as runners-up in 1964.

[6][7][8] Football teams consisting of entirely Indian players started to tour Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand during the late 1930s.

[13][14][15][16] While it was commonly believed that India withdrew due to FIFA's ban on playing barefoot, the team's captain at that time, Sailen Manna, insisted that this was not the case; it is now generally accepted that India withdrew simply because they valued the Olympics more than the World Cup and did not view the latter is being prestigious enough to justify taking part.

[18] Despite not participating in the World Cup in 1950 and opting not to even play the Asian zone qualifiers until 1985, the following years until 1964 are usually considered to be the "golden era" of the Indian football.

[24] The following year, India competed in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, but were unused to the cold conditions[11] and lost 10–1 to Yugoslavia.

The team finished in fourth place during the Summer Olympics football tournament, losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria 3–0.

Despite their performance two years prior during the AFC Asian Cup, India could not go beyond the group stage as the team finished third, behind Japan and Iran.

[36] In 1974, India's performance in the Asian Games once again sharply declined as they finished the 1974 edition in last place in their group, losing all three matches, scoring two, and conceding 14 goals in the first round.

[46] Constantine was replaced by Syed Nayeemuddin in 2005 but the Indian head coach only lasted for a little over a year as India suffered many heavy defeats during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.

[52] In order to prepare for the Asian Cup, Houghton had the team stay together as a squad for eight months from June 2010 until the start of the tournament, meaning the players would not play for their clubs.

[57] Despite qualifying for the AFC Challenge Cup, the AIFF decided to terminate the contract of Bob Houghton as he was charged with racial abuse towards referee[58][59] which ultimately resulted in his resignation as the head coach of India.

[84] But in the second match they earned a respectable point after managing a goalless draw against the 2019 Asian Champion and 2022 FIFA World Cup host Qatar.

In the return leg against Qatar, India went down to the hosts with a single goal and got knocked out of the World Cup qualification tournament with two games to spare.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India was chosen as the host of the group of the qualifiers while the qualification was reduced into a single round robin format.

[91] In September 2022, India participated for the first time in the VFF Cup where they played two friendly matches, a 1–1 draw against Singapore and a 3–0 defeat by Vietnam, ending their year .

India beat Myanmar 1–0 and Kyrgyzstan 2–0 in the Tri-Nation series, and defeated Lebanon 2–0 in the final of Intercontinental Cup to win the title for the second time.

[94][95] Following the Tri-Nation Series and the Intercontinental Cup, India won the 2023 SAFF championship, their third title in the year 2023 at home soil.

[108] On 20 July 2024, the AIFF announced that Manolo Márquez would become the head coach of the India national football team while maintaining his duties with FC Goa for the upcoming ISL season.

[128][129][130][131][132][133][134] Till the 21st century, the Indian football fans were mostly scattered, being widely based in West Bengal, North-East India, Goa and Kerala.

[135][136][137][138][139] Other than matches in Asian Games, Nehru Cup or SAFF Championship,[140][141][142] the crowd showed up in small numbers when the team played as the fans were not organised under any single banner as happens in Europe or South America.

In his video he urged the fans to come out at Mumbai to support the team after a poor crowd appearance of only 2569 at a match against Chinese Taipei in the 2018 Intercontinental Cup.

India achieved a massive victory in that match, winning by 5−0 with Chhetri scoring a hat-trick, but there were very few people present to celebrate.

Win Draw Loss Fixture Since India's independence, there have been twenty-nine different head coaches for the national team, out of which eleven foreign.

The most successful foreign head coaches for India were Bob Houghton and Stephen Constantine; both of them helped the team to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup.

He was given the responsibility of leading the team at the 1948 Olympics, India's first major tournament[175][176] and also was the flag bearer of Indian contingents in London.

[178] During India's golden era between the 1950s and early 60s, the country produced coveted strikers such as Sheoo Mewalal, Neville D'Souza, Chuni Goswami, Inder Singh and Tulsidas Balaram.

Despite the lack of tournament victories, the country managed to produce players like Syed Nayeemuddin who led India to bronze at the 1970 Asian Games.

[254] In 1951 Asian Games India won their first match against Indonesia in the first round and then defeated Japan in semi-final and went on to win against Iran in the final in front of the home crowd.

[257] This was the last time India ever finished on the medal podium, the next years proved to be hard for the Indian team to regain their dominance as the side went through a sharp decline.

[258] After two disappointing editions in 1974 and 1978, India performed much better in the 1982 Asiad, which they hosted for the second time by reaching the quarter-finals but lost to Saudi Arabia.