Asian Games 2018: AIFF, IOA confirm Indian football team's non-participation in Jakarta

The IOA denied clearance and took a decision to disallow Indian Football teams from participating in the Asian Games. The AIFF conducted a press conference regarding this decision on Monday, confirming that the Indian men's and women's national teams will not be travelling to Jakarta, Indonesia, for the Asian Games.

Kushal Das, general secretary of AIFF, said at the press conference, "The IOA has taken a decision not to allow the Indian men's and women's football teams from taking part in the Asian Games. Firstly, we have got no official communication from the IOA on the non-participation of the teams. It has all been verbal. When I called them up, they simply said that the teams will not be allowed to participate. However, it is rather strange that they did not have the courtesy to at least inform the federation the basis on which the teams are not being allowed."

Das further went on to say, "I did not understand the criteria very well. It is unclear whether they are talking about the present ranking or the previous ranking, (which was there at the 2014 Asian Games)."

Kushal has made efforts to communicate to the IOA officials that football -- as a sport -- should be looked at differently. There is no doubt that the national team has been doing really well, even winning the recently concluded Intercontinental Cup. The Men in Blue have made a massive jump from the 160s on the FIFA rankings, four years back to 97 now.

Previously, the IOA had asked the AIFF to make a presentation on the same and send it across so they can decide if the decision was worth reconsidering.

"The presentation was sent on 4th June. After that, there was no communication from the IOA whatsoever. I finally told our President Praful Patel to intervene and speak to IOA president Narinder Batra," Das added.

Narinder Batra said the same thing -- to make a presentation and send it across again. AIFF sent it across once more.

"Surprisingly again there was no communication with us till June 30, when I believe they had a meeting. In the evening when I called IOA up, they said -- NO -- The decision has not been reversed, it still stands and both teams will not be allowed to participate. After this, we came out with the release, and also wrote a letter to the IOA expressing our disappointment and unhappiness with the decision, which they took without really consulting with us and trying to understand what is happening in the football world."

AIFF General Secretary - Kushal Das

Back in 2014, the Men's team was ranked 165 in the world and now they are 97. The fact that the team was able to qualify for the Asian Cup after 11 years speaks volumes in itself. A tremendous amount of growth has been achieved, with youth leagues like the U12, U15, and U18 taking place.

There are 11 Under-23 players in the senior national team squad. Immediately after the Asian Games, there is the SAFF Championship, followed by the Asian Cup in 2019, where a significant number of U-23 players will be part of the team.

With so many international tournaments coming up, this decision of IOA is set to take away the opportunity to give the boys and girls some much-needed exposure.

"The decision is very disheartening. I do not know on what basis the IOA decided that there is no chance of winning a medal. I feel there is always a chance of winning a medal in any sport," Kushal Das firmly stated.

It is wrong to say that India is out of medal contention. Today, India is ranked 13th in Asia, which is still close to 8.

However, despite all the build-up and drama, the response by a top IOA official was in contradiction to what the AIFF had been claiming.

When speaking to Sportskeeda, IOA general secretary Rajeev Mehta said, "This is a blanket policy by the IOA across all sports and federations. The teams have to be ranked at least eighth in their respective sports, in order to make the cut. Since this is a blanket rule, we cannot really do much about it. We have extended all communication to the AIFF in this regard."

The final decision will always be with the IOA. The support from the lovers of the sport has been pouring in and the AIFF is still hopeful that the decision will be overturned. It seems like another video from captain Sunil Chhetri is required for this to gain more momentum.