Football for women in Asia started later compared to their male counterparts. The seed of women's football in India was planted in the early 1970s. The first manager was Sushil Bhattacharya, in 1975[3] and from 1975 until 1991, the administration of the game was in the hands of the Women's Football Federation of India (WFFI), which comes under the Asian Ladies' Football Confederation (ALFC) that had recognition from neither FIFA nor AFC. Both organizations continuously tried to dissuade Asian countries from sending teams to these tournaments, for which the first few editions of AFC Women's Asian Cup seen very few teams. Thus, the 1980 featured two Indian teams (India N & India S), Western Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.[4] India did well enough in all these tournaments under Sushil Bhattacharya. In the next edition of 1981 India achieved third position, defeated by Thailand, and became runners-up in the 1983, edition losing to Thailand again. This was the best chapter for the Indian women team in the Asian platform as since 1983 the performance declined along with mismanagement in the federation. The game was administered by WFFI from 1975 until the early 1990s, when they were absorbed into the AIFF.[5]
Decline (1991–2009)
The AIFF did very less to lift the women's football from their meager condition. It was the time when FIFA conceptualized and organised FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991 and International Olympic Committee started the women's competition at 1996 Summer Olympics. Time and again, the AIFF officials stated that lifting the standard of women's football to the level of their Asian counterparts was their chief aim. The AIFF failed to sponsor the team's first foreign trip in 1997 to Germany before the Asian Championships. Eventually, the trip was made possibly with the help of the German Football Association and NRI's living in Germany.[6]
1998 Asian Games was first participation for the national team. They were defeated by Chinese Taipei 1–13, before facing the biggest defeat in the history by China PR with an embarrassing scoreline of 0–16.[7]
The women's game reached a new low in June 2009 when FIFA delisted the side from its world rankings, for being out of action for more than 18 months.[8] From 1991 to 2010 the performance of the Indian team was very poor, participating in just 5 editions.
After 2009 sanction by FIFA, the AIFF started to better the condition of the national team and women's football, which led to commencing SAFF Women's Championship and also including women's football in the South Asian Games. The women's team resumed playing on 29 January 2010 after nearly a year-long hiatus.[9] Indian team earn massive success in SAFF competitions, winning the SAFF Women's Championship four times in a row without losing a single game. Additionally, they won two gold medals at South Asian Games.[10]
They participated in the qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics in March 2011. In their first match India has beaten group hosts Bangladesh 3–0. In the second round India played Uzbekistan, where they tied the first match 1–1, but lost the second leg 1–5.[11]
India participated for the second time at the Asian games in 2014, but the condition was not better than the previous participation, 16 years back in 1998. Though India defeated Maldives easily with 15–0 score, a similar fate was faced by them in the next two matches, being defeated by South Korea and Thailand with the same score of 0–10.[12]
In August 2018, Indian women national team was invited to participate in Cotif Tournament where clubs and national and autonomous teams participate every year since 1984, held at Valencia, Spain. 2018 Cotif was 35th Anniversary of the tournament.[13] At this tournament they faced 3 Spanish club teams and Morocco. First lost to Fundación Albacete, 1–4, then to Levante UD, 0–5, then the Moroccan side defeated India with a score 5–1, but on the last match India played with maturity, though lost to Madrid CFF with 0–1 score.
For preparation of 2020 Olympics 2nd round qualifiers India played two matches each against Hong Kong and Indonesia winning all four of them 5–2 & 1–0 against Hong Kong and 3–0 & 2–0 against Indonesia respectively.[16][17] Following these matches India played at the 2019 Gold Cup organised at home, where they won their first match against Iran by 1–0 but lost next two matches to Nepal and Myanmar by 1–2 and 0–2 respectively and failed to reach the final.[18][19][20]
2022 onwards
India returned to the AFC Women's Championship, now known as the AFC Women's Asian Cup, when it hosted the 2022 edition. They last appeared in 2003, before qualifiers was introduced since the 2006 edition.[21] However India was forced to withdraw from the 2022 tournament it is hosting due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the team.[22]
At the 2022 SAFF Women's Championship, India lost a match at the regional tournament for the first time.[23] They lost against Bangladesh 0–3 in the group stage.[24] The team also lost the semifinal against Nepal 0–1. Thus failing to win the SAFF title for the first time ever.[25]
In July 2025, India secured a berth at the AFC Women's Asian Cup for the first time via qualification. India defeated group qualifiers host Thailand 2–1 to earn a berth at the 2026 edition set to be hosted in Australia.[26] Head coach Crispin Chettri noted the distinct challenges in managing a women’s team, emphasizing injury risks and physiological considerations.[27]
INJ Withdrew due to injury PRE Preliminary squad / standby RET Retired from the national team SUS Serving suspension WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.
↑ India failed to name the required 13 players and were unable to play their match of the group stage against Chinese Taipei due to them having only fewer than 13 players left with the remaining team members testing positive for COVID-19. They were considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all previous matches played by them were considered "null and void" and would not be considered in determining the final group rankings.[47]
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7 (7 August 2025) [1] 
India S 2–0 Hong Kong 
