Every four years, millions of Indians passionately support football teams from around the world. Yet, when the FIFA World Cup begins, the world’s most populous nation is almost always missing from the pitch.
That contradiction has become one of Indian sport’s greatest paradoxes.
Restaurants stay open past midnight, streets fill with the jerseys of Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and France, and millions sacrifice sleep to watch matches played thousands of kilometres away. For a few weeks, football dominates conversations in a nation otherwise consumed by cricket.
Then the tournament ends.
The jerseys disappear, television ratings fall, and local football quietly returns to the margins.
Once again, the familiar question emerges:
Why has a country of more than 1.4 billion people never become a regular participant at the FIFA World Cup?
The usual explanations are well known. Cricket overshadows football. Grassroots development is weak. Infrastructure is inadequate. Coaching standards vary widely, and football administration has struggled with consistency and long-term planning. All these factors matter.
But perhaps we have been asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking why India has not qualified for the World Cup, we should ask why millions of Indian children still grow up without regular opportunities to play organised sport.
That is not merely a football problem.
It is a public health problem.
The health implications are significant. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80% of adolescents worldwide do not achieve the recommended levels of physical activity, making physical inactivity one of the leading contributors to non-communicable diseases. Football and other organised sports therefore represent far more than recreation—they are practical, community-based tools for improving physical and mental health.
Football should not be viewed only through the lens of trophies and international rankings. It is one of the most accessible and effective investments a country can make in the health of its people. Every hour a child spends playing football is an hour invested in healthier adulthood. Regular participation improves cardiovascular fitness, strengthens bones and muscles, reduces the risk of obesity and diabetes, and encourages lifelong healthy habits. Just as importantly, team sports cultivate discipline, resilience, communication, leadership and social connectedness—qualities that classrooms alone cannot always teach.
In public health, prevention is always more effective than treatment.
Football is one of the simplest forms of preventive healthcare available to any community.
Yet many schools still lack quality sports facilities. Safe community playgrounds continue to disappear as towns and cities expand. Organised school competitions remain inconsistent, qualified youth coaches are limited, and talented children often leave sport because academic pressure or financial realities leave them with few alternatives.
By the time we ask why India has failed to produce world-class footballers, we have already lost thousands of potential players long before they reach adulthood.
The real challenge, therefore, is not the forty days of World Cup excitement.
It is the approximately 1,420 days between two World Cups.
Those are the days that determine whether children discover football or never play at all. They are the days when schools decide whether physical education matters, local clubs struggle to survive, coaches develop young talent, and governments choose whether sport deserves sustained investment or only temporary attention during international tournaments.
Countries such as Japan have shown that consistent investment in school football, grassroots coaching and long-term planning can transform a nation’s footballing identity within a generation. More recently, Uzbekistan and Jordan have demonstrated that patient development can take countries with far smaller populations to the FIFA World Cup.
India does not lack talent.
India lacks continuity.
We often measure football by trophies and FIFA rankings. Public health measures it differently—by healthier children, stronger communities and fewer preventable diseases. Success on the field begins with success in neighbourhood playgrounds.
The conversation, therefore, must move beyond football alone. Every playground should be recognised as part of a nation’s health infrastructure. Every trained coach contributes not only to developing athletes but also to mentoring healthier, more confident young citizens. Every school tournament is an investment in education, community and preventive healthcare.
Winning football matches is the visible outcome. Building healthier communities is the lasting one.
This requires a shift in policy. Schools must treat physical education as an essential component of learning rather than an optional activity. Urban planning must protect community playing spaces. Sports science, nutrition and injury prevention should become integral to youth development, while football governance must prioritise grassroots investment over short-term promises.
None of these reforms guarantee that India will qualify for the next FIFA World Cup.
Nor should that be the immediate expectation.
The greatest success of football policy is not producing eleven elite players. It is giving millions of children the opportunity to become healthier adults. If that foundation is built consistently, better footballers will emerge naturally.
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In a country facing a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, investing in children’s opportunities to play should be seen as an essential complement to investing in hospitals.
Every World Cup reminds us that India loves football.
The real question is whether we love it enough to invest in children after the tournament ends.
India’s greatest football challenge is not qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. It is ensuring that every child has the opportunity to play.
Build healthier children first, and better footballers will follow.
The World Cup lasts for forty days. A football nation is built during the remaining 1,420.
Dr. Dronesh Chettri (BDS, MPH) is a public health researcher based in Gangtok, Sikkim, and Founder of COPHE Research, an independent public health and policy research initiative.
Views expressed are that of the author and do not reflect EastMojo’s stance on this or any other issue.
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