Why Is India Missing from the World Stage in Sports?

The ongoing FIFA World Cup is being watched by more than five billion people across the world. For several weeks, football dominates conversations everywhere, and the discussions continue for months even after the tournament ends. It is one of the biggest sporting spectacles on the planet, offering countries an opportunity to showcase not only their sporting talent but also their physical strength, discipline and mental resilience.

Sadly, India has no place in this global stage.

For viewers in India, the FIFA World Cup is limited to cheering for other nations from the stands or watching matches on television. Despite calling ourselves Vishwaguru and being the world's most populous country with nearly 18 per cent of the global population, India has no representation in the tournament. The Indian men's football team is currently ranked 138th in the world, making qualification for the World Cup a distant dream.

This naturally raises an uncomfortable question: Why is India in such a poor position in football?

The disappointment does not end with football. The Olympics, regarded as the highest stage of global sporting excellence, tells a similar story.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the United States topped the medals table with 126 medals, including 40 gold medals. China matched the United States with 40 gold medals and finished second with an overall tally of 91 medals.

India, on the other hand, finished a disappointing 71st with no gold medals, one silver and five bronze medals.

Even when we restrict the comparison to Asia, India's performance leaves much to be desired. At the last Asian Games, India finished fourth with 28 gold medals and a total of 107 medals. While this was an improvement over previous editions, neither our massive population nor our geographical size translated into sporting dominance.

Countries much smaller than India, such as Japan and South Korea, comfortably finished ahead of us in second and third place. China dominated the competition with an extraordinary 201 gold medals and a total of 383 medals.

Perhaps the only consolation for Indians has been performing better than Pakistan in most international sporting events.

Pakistan finished 31st in the Asian Games and is ranked 198th in men's football compared to India's 138th. For years, many Indians have found satisfaction in the fact that despite our own mediocre performances, we have generally remained ahead of Pakistan.

But even that comfort disappeared during the Paris Olympics.

Pakistan won just one medal, but it was a gold medal. India won six medals in total, including one silver and five bronze medals, yet Pakistan's lone gold lifted it to 62nd position, ahead of India's 71st. It was an embarrassing reminder that quality often matters more than quantity.

India's poor performance in international sports should have become the subject of serious debate among governments, political parties and every citizen who takes pride in the country.

Instead, our public discourse is increasingly occupied with symbolic displays of patriotism, leaving very little room for honest discussions about why India continues to struggle in global sports.

More than 70 crore Indians reportedly watch the FIFA World Cup. Yet hardly anyone asks why India itself is absent from football's biggest stage. More than five billion people watched the Paris Olympics, but very few questioned who should take responsibility for India's disappointing performance.

Has our sense of patriotism become limited to slogans while ignoring areas where the nation genuinely needs improvement? Have we become trapped in endless debates over issues that contribute little to national progress while neglecting questions that truly matter?

Every nation faces setbacks. Failure itself is not the problem. What matters is whether a country is willing to confront its shortcomings honestly.

Unfortunately, India appears to have chosen a different path. Rather than discussing repeated failures in sports, we often avoid the subject altogether because it is uncomfortable. But ignoring failure does not eliminate it.

Today, India's sporting performance has become the subject of jokes among many youngsters.

Some sarcastically remark that the Olympic Committee deliberately excludes sports like cricket and kabaddi because India would otherwise sweep all the gold medals.

Others joke that if there were an elocution competition in the Olympics, India would dominate the podium because the country has lakhs of gifted speakers. If an oratory event were introduced, they say, India would win every gold, silver and bronze medal available.

There are equally humorous observations that if there were competitions in fashion, changing expensive outfits every hour, or posing before cameras, Indians would once again emerge champions.

Some even say there should be Olympic events for chewing paan, gutkha or chewing gum and spitting the longest distance on public roads.

Football, they point out sarcastically, is a game of kicking. India, they say, has thousands of years of experience in being kicked rather than kicking others. While there are certainly people experienced in suppressing others socially, those skills unfortunately cannot be displayed on a football field.

Even athletics has not escaped such satire. Running events like the 100-metre and 200-metre races are jokingly dismissed because, according to these critics, Indians are brave people who do not run away from a fight.

The same sarcastic logic is extended to high jump and long jump. Indians, they say, are too busy fighting among themselves to spend time jumping over bars or pits.

These jokes may sound amusing, but beneath the humour lies an uncomfortable truth.

No nation can improve by refusing to acknowledge its failures. Reality does not disappear because we choose to ignore it. In fact, neglected problems only grow larger with time.

India's sporting struggles are not the result of a lack of talent. Our country has no shortage of gifted athletes, determination, hard work or enthusiasm. Time and again, individual Indian sportspersons have shown that they can compete with the very best in the world when given the right support.

The real question, therefore, is not whether India has talent.

The question is where the system is failing.

Is it a problem of infrastructure? Grassroots development? Coaching? Nutrition? Sports science? Administrative inefficiency? Lack of investment? Poor talent identification? Or is it because sports still does not receive the same importance as academics and other professions?

These are the questions that deserve national attention.

Only through honest discussion, serious debate and meaningful reforms can India hope to identify the real causes of its continued underperformance on the world stage.

If that happens, perhaps one day Indian fans will not merely watch the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics or the Asian Games as spectators.

They will watch the Indian tricolour flying high among the world's greatest sporting nations.