Indian football team's three longest winless streaks in history

Indian Football team are winless in seven out of last eight games.

The Indian football team have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Blue Tigers have failed to live up to all the expectations and have given their fans nothing but disappointment. It’s been quite some time since the national team has been facing the heat for all their wrongdoings both on and off the pitch.

It’s been a topsy-turvy kind of journey for an Indian football fan in the last couple of years. While positive results have been hard to come by, the team has simply lacked intent and has failed to string together convincing performances. The Indian football team were most recently in a friendly against Thailand and an Asian Cup qualifier game against Hong Kong.

Guess what? They ended up losing both fixtures. Qualifying for the Asian Cup also seems like a distant possibility. The Blue Tigers are struggling to keep up with a lot of their Asian counterparts.

As a result, the Indian football team have fallen to 133rd spot in the FIFA rankings, an all-time low in the last eight years. With head coach Manolo Marquez not likely to continue at the helm, tough times await Indian football.

In this article, we take a look at the Indian football team’s top 3 longest winless streaks.

3. Twelve matches (1981-1982)

The Indian football team witnessed one of their longest winless run between 1981 and 1982. They went on a winless run of twelve games and failed to secure a win over a period of 432 days. It all began with India’s 2-2 draw against Malaysia in the Merdeka Cup in September of 1981. Both PK Banerjee and Bob Bootland were in charge of the national team during this time.

Indian football team’s winless run consisted of seven defeats and five draws. They lost a couple of games against the UAE before a draw and a defeat to South Korea. Uruguay, Ghana, Singapore, and Indonesia also registered wins over India. The winless run came to an end in November of 1982 with a 2-0 win against Bangladesh in the Asian Games. 

2. Twelve matches (1992-1993)

The third-longest winless run in the history of the Indian football team also consists of twelve games. This run came in during the 1990s and lasted for a period of around 394 days. Derek D’Souza and Jiří PešekIt were at the hot seat during this phase. It started with India’s 3-0 defeat to Iran in the AFC Qualifiers, followed by a draw each against Finland and Cameroon. 

The Indian football team lost eight games and drew four during this period, and were also on the receiving end of a five-match losing streak. South Korea and Bahrain secured a couple of wins against India in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, while Hong Kong and Lebanon won a game each before India pulled off a much-needed 3-1 win over Hong Kong in the summer of 1993.

1. Twelve matches (2023-25)

Indian football team’s longest and most recent winless run came in just a few years ago and lasted for 484 days. Igor Stimac’s high-flying side had just won the treble of titles in 2023 before facing their most unsuccessful stint. After winning the Tri-Nation Series, Intercontinental Cup, and the SAFF Championship, India were one of the favourites to qualify for the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, but destiny had other plans.

Indian football team not just crashed out of the second round, but also experienced a horrendous AFC Asian Cup campaign and came back home without even scoring a goal. They faced defeats against Australia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Syria and Qatar, which forced a way out for Igor Stimac. Their winless run came to an end with a 3-0 win over the Maldives in March 2025, under the tutelage of Manolo Marquez. 

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