"Ab party hoga" - Indian football fans jubilant as men's and women's teams allowed to participate in Asian Games

After what’s been a tumultuous few days for Indian football fans, the decision has finally been made. Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur took to social media platform Twitter to personally deliver the good news to football fans across the country.

When news initially broke out on July 16 that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) would not be allowing the Indian men’s and women’s football teams, there was a huge uproar across social media platforms, with fans (figuratively) going up in arms to protest the decision.

In a letter to the IOA and the National Sporting Federations, the Ministry of Sport had stated that only teams ranked in the top eight in Asia in their respective sports would be permitted to participate at the Asian Games. This meant that neither the men’s team (18th in Asia) nor the women’s team (11th in Asia) made the cut-off to be eligible to make the trip to Hangzhou.

However, with Mr Thakur’s announcement earlier today, it looks like the power of social media is real. The fans’ protests across media platforms seem to have had their impact, and football followers from across the country took to Twitter to acknowledge the same.

Here are some of the best reactions:

Fans aplenty thanked the sports ministry and the government, while also acknowledging just how important their own efforts were in the decision being overturned.

One fan even channelled his inner Cristiano Ronaldo to celebrate what could prove to be a massive moment in Indian football.

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Sunil Chhetri to lead India at the Asian Games

Even with the uncertainty surrounding the team at the Games, news broke out that national team captain Sunil Chhetri will, in fact, lead the national team in Hangzhou.

A source is said to have told the PTI that Chhetri, Sandesh Jhingan and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu are set to be the three players over the age limit who will participate in the primarily U23 tournament.

It will be interesting to see if the Indian men’s and women’s teams can punch above their weight and compete with the giants of Asian football at the quadrennial games.