Why are Indian football team called 'The Blue Tigers'?

The Indian team have officially been known by the nickname of the Blue Tigers since 2013.

The Indian football team have quite the attractive and lovable nickname of ‘The Blue Tigers’ that has stuck with fans ever since it started being used in 2013. Indeed, the nickname was actually created just about a decade ago and has stuck with both fans and players ever since.

There is actually an interesting tale of how the Indian football team earned its nickname. Even though India played their first official football match way back in 1938 in the pre-Independence period, there wasn’t really a need for any nicknames or abbreviations for national teams at that point in time.

The Indian football team continued being regarded like that for many decades even after Independence because ‘nicknames’ weren’t really that necessary in the 20th century. But that all changed with the ushering of the 21st century, where both football clubs and national teams had to increase their ‘attractability’ by getting catchy nicknames for fans to remember them by.

Even though the Blue Tigers nickname was officially awarded to the Indian football team in 2013, certain fan forum discussions started to influence this long before that. The India Football Network forum, which was a pretty popular outlet for Indian fans to discuss all things related to the national team and football scene in the early 2010s, decided to hold a discussion on what should be the Indian football team’s nickname.

Before the official ‘Blue Tigers’ name was created, the Indian Football team were often nicknamed the ‘Bhangra Boys’ by fans at the beginning of the 21st century. This was actually created when India decided to travel to England in July 2000 for a friendly tour in an attempt to test their ability against certain English teams.

India faced West Bromwich Albion in a friendly game on July 26, 2000. It ended as a 0-0 draw. In that game, Bhaichung Bhutia did come close to scoring a winner. During that eventful outing, the Indian side earned a lot of support from fans who arrived at the stadium with drums to keep an entertaining and joyful vibe all throughout the game.

As a result, the ‘Bhangra Boys’ nickname was created from that game because the majority of the fans rooting for India in that game were Punjabi. Team India made tours of England in 2001 and 2002 too, where they received a similar reception.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) took the cue from some Indian football fans to officially baptize the Indian Football team with the ‘Blue Tigers’ nickname. The name is inspired by the colour blue, which is not only the primary colour of their home kits but also depicts the Ashoka Chakra’s colour in the national flag. The tiger is the national animal of India, which is why it has been used to ideally depict the identity of the Indian football team.

The colour blue has been the primary colour for the Indian sports teams’ jerseys, including that of the football team. Fortunately for the AIFF, the ‘Blue Tigers’ name has really stuck well with the fans and it’ll continue being used for a long, long time unless something even better pops up to depict the Indian football team perfectly.

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