indias recording Sunday night’s Group A game against Chinese Taipei disappointed many Indian fans as India failed to name the required 13 players as at least 12 players in the team had tested positive for COVID-19. This announcement came minutes before the match was set to start at 7:30 PM at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai.
Now, the Women’s Asian Cup has announced on Twitter that India has completely withdrawn from the tournament and that all previous matches played by them will be deemed “null and void” and will not be taken into account in determining the final group rankings.
After India their recording from the Sunday game, netizens started speculating what this would mean for India in the future in this tournament.
India has so far played one match against Iran on Thursday, January 20, resulting in a 0-0 draw. Therefore, the match with Chinese Taipei would be a make-or-break situation for India, which would decide whether to stay in the competition or not. Notably, India defeated higher-ranked Chinese Taipei in a friendly match last year.
Praful Patel, president of AIFF, was one of the first to announce the unfortunate news of the game’s cancellation on Twitter with a series of tweets: “Our support for the Blue Tigresses will continue, and we will work to ensure that our players come back stronger.” He went on: “The AIFF also thanks the fans and is grateful for their continued support in the collective effort to bring Indian Football Forward Together,” he tweeted.
India’s exit from the AFC Women’s Asian Cup is all the more unfortunate as the Women’s Senior team had spent the past six months training for this international tournament playing friendlies against Tunisia, UAE, Sweden, Brazil and more.
The passionate Indian football fans were quick to express their sadness at the news:
Absolutely heartbreaking. @praful_patel can be answered.
India organizes the #WAC2022, the team hopes to make it to the quarter-finals, have a chance to compete in the World Cup, and crash because it is unable to field enough players. Complete disregard for the women’s team. https://t.co/dtUJMXjyYT
– revolt(@pottybla) January 23, 2022
The tournament continues with the other teams including stalwarts China, Japan and South Korea. The matches can be streamed on Eurosport and Jio TV.
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