Forty-eight countries played in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which was sixteen more than the previous tournament in Qatar. This expansion opened the door for nations which were unheard of by spectators of football, notable examples are Cape Verde with a population of 500,000, and Curacao with a population of just 150,000 (Fortune, 2026). The presence of these two tiny nations at what is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event made two absences impossible to ignore – India and China, the world’s most populous nations.
Naturally, one might enquire how the world's most populous nations failed to find 11 persons to represent their sides at the world stage. Throughout the history of this tournament, China has had one appearance, whilst India has had none (NPR, 2026) - which is fewer times than Haiti, or even North Korea (ABC 2026; Al Jazeera 2026).
Often, one might argue that China and India do not prioritize football and that they excel at the Olympics, and at cricket, respectively. However, it is reported that China may boast a football fan base of approximately 200 million with a growing domestic league (Reuters 2026), whilst India is not far along. This article explores the question of why China and India are consistently unable to turn this huge amount of interest in the sport into talent and why this might be costing them soft power on the global stage.
It is understood that if any country wants to make the world cup, let alone play well in it, it has to turn its youth into elite players. These countries often build institutions with a strict hierarchy – at the foundation is the most basic necessity, a space to play, i.e. hard infrastructure such as pitches and stadiums. This is because more pitches allow as many members as possible of the youth to showcase their talents early on.
Next, there are multiple developmental organizations such as clubs and academies which oversee the talent of these youngsters. Further up the hierarchy, one will find the football leagues. And finally, the last stage is making it for the national team – there is no better example of this hierarchy working that in the French national team and star player Kylian Mbappe (The Guardian, 2022). Nonetheless, India and China’s problem is not that they do not have this hierarchy, instead, their hierarchy is chaotic.
INDIA
Bobby Ghosh writes (2026) that India was in fact a world-power in the sport of football in the 1960s and even made it to the semi-finals in the Olympics and was invited to play the FIFA world cup. Ghosh (2026) goes to mention that a key ailment India’s football culture faces is a lack of self-confidence – in 1971 India beat England, its former colonizer in cricket, a decade later India became world champions of cricket and by the 21st century cricket was practically a religion in India.
By the mid 2000s, India invested heavily in building a solid cricket hierarchy – stadiums, academies, leagues such IPL which turn out to be multibillion dollar success stories. Cricket’s rise came at the demise of India’s football culture. In its 2023 report, India’s football federation cites many obvious hurdles such as low participation, lack of urban facilities, lack of trained personnel. Even members of the youth who start playing would soon run out of places to play (Khel Now, 2023), and the Indian football federation stated that there were less than 100 developmental clubs and for the very few players who end up making it to the Indian super league have to deal with constant chaos.
When the Indian football federation put the league up for sale, they could not attract commercial sponsors due to a lack of demand in viewer interests (The Guardian, 2026). To add to the already existing concerns, the federation’s officials are constantly accused of mass corruption and football’s governing body FIFA even banned India’s football federation temporarily for malpractices and bad governance (The Times of India 2024; The Times of India, 2022). Ghosh (2026) argues that because the wider Indian population does not show an interest towards football, there will be no interest shown by politicians thus the necessary institutional reform might never come through.
CHINA
Unlike in India, China’s approach is top-down. In fact, China’s President Xi Jinping has mentioned a three-step plan: 1) qualify for the world cup, 2) host the world cup, and 3) win the world cup (Reuters, 2026; The Guardian, 2015). China is no stranger to making the top-down approach work – China's extraordinary performance at the Olympics was the result of carefully crafted state policy in lifting the image of the country. However, experts say it is in fact the opposite approach needed to make football work – the bottom-up approach.
In 2015, the Chinese state took the first steps to building a strong football governing body in the country from the bottom – China pledged to build 70,000 pitches, 20,000 training centers and eventually get 30 million children playing football while strengthening the academies and leagues and finally to turn the Chinese Super League into one of the world’s best (British Council, 2016). While everything China did looked just right on paper, there was one social aspect which the system could not break; the Gaokao exams left millions of teenagers with no choice but to leave their sporting careers behind.
Eventually, due to a lack of players in the system, financial woes from the Evergreen crash and the COVID-19 pandemic, all collectively resulted in many of the super league clubs folding. Worse still, the Chinese system placed individuals from non-football, non-sports related government institutions to head and manage the hierarchy.
THE QUESTION OF DUAL NATIONALITY
Cape Verde and Curacao, along with countries like Qatar have allowed foreign-born players with the relevant countries’ ancestry along with others with dual passports to play for their national teams (Forbes, 2026). However, India and China, although possessing a large diaspora spread across the globe, have not done so because these two countries have no option for their citizens to hold dual citizenship.
HOW IS IT RELEVANT TO SOFT-POWER?
While governments do not negotiate trade agreements or security partnerships based on football, the influence it has in contemporary times is not an aspect that one could ignore. Both China and India are making inroads in Africa for influence in trade and security. Africa by and large is a footballing continent, and this can be a great tool for both countries to use.
Often India and China must deal with Europe, West Asia and Central Asia for the same reasons of trade and security – all footballing continents. Football can be used as a tool of influence, and in tougher conversations a deal-breaker. Thus, their absence is highlighted amongst football fans and noticed by its global partners.
References
ABC News (2026) 'The first Asian team to win a game at the World Cup finals', ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au/asia/the-first-asian-team-to-win-a-game-at-the-world-cup-finals/106779976
Al Jazeera (2026) 'For Haitians in the US, the pride and joy of the World Cup comes with fear', Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/25/for-haitians-in-the-us-the-pride-and-joy-of-the-world-cup-comes-with-fear
All India Football Federation (2023) Vision 2047: The Indian Football Strategic Roadmap. https://www.the-aiff.com/media/uploads/2023/01/Vision-2047-The-Indian-Football-Strategic-Roadmap-2023-2047.pdf
British Council (2016) 'Medium and long-term plan for Chinese football development points to increased demand for education in sports-related fields', British Council Opportunities Insight, https://opportunities-insight.britishcouncil.org/short-articles/news/medium-and-long-term-plan-chinese-football-development-points-increased-demand
Forbes (2026) 'How diaspora recruitment has reshaped World Cup rosters', Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/clementelisi/2026/06/15/how-diaspora-recruitment-has-reshaped-world-cup-rosters/
Fortune (2026) 'The legend of Cape Verde: how an island of half a million built the best team at the World Cup', Fortune, https://fortune.com/2026/07/16/roberto-lopes-linkedin-spam-cape-verde/
Ghosh, B. (2026) 'The 156,000 and the 1.4 billion', Foreign Policy, 15 May. Republished by Almendron. https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/the-156000-and-the-1-4-billion/
Khel Now (2023) 'Indian football: AIFF roadmap simplified – youth leagues planned, structure, objectives, development', Khel Now, https://khelnow.com/football/2023-01-indian-football-aiff-roadmap-simplified-youth-leagues-planned-structure-objectives-development
NPR (2026) 'Why India and China, two of the largest countries, didn't have World Cup teams', NPR, https://www.npr.org/2026/07/10/nx-s1-5876069/why-india-and-china-two-of-the-largest-countries-didnt-have-world-cup-teams
Reuters (2026) 'FIFA faces World Cup broadcast crisis as India's Reliance offers $20mln in China deal', Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fifa-faces-world-cup-broadcast-crisis-indias-reliance-offers-20-mln-china-deal-2026-05-04/
The Guardian (2015) ‘China sets goal of hosting World Cup with master plan for football’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/17/china-sets-goal-of-hosting-world-cup-with-master-plan-for-football
The Guardian (2022) 'Project Mbappé: the making of France's football superstar', The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/09/project-mbappe-the-making-of-frances-football-superstar
The Guardian (2026) 'No games, no league: City Football Group and Indian football's "global embarrassment"', The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/07/no-games-no-league-city-football-group-indian-football-global-embarrassment-mumbai-city-manchester
Times of India (2024) 'AIFF terminates service of its legal head after he accused President Kalyan Chaubey of corruption', The Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/football/top-stories/aiff-terminates-service-of-its-legal-head-after-he-accused-president-kalyan-chaubey-of-corruption/articleshow/108184049.cms
