After years of dealing with a sense of apathy from stakeholders, cases of alleged harassment, and the Indian Women’s League (IWL) being little more than an afterthought, the Indian women’s national football team has quietly qualified for next year’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

This is the first time that the Blue Tigresses have made it to the continental tournament through the qualification route. In 2003, qualifiers did not exist. In 2022, India made it to the tournament as the host.

The Crispin Chettri-coached squad topped Group B after an unbeaten qualifying campaign, which included dominant wins over Mongolia (13-0), Timor Leste (4-0), and Iraq (5-0), before grinding out a decisive 2-1 win against higher-ranked Thailand.