According to a widely circulated story, Indian footballers qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil but had to miss it due to FIFA's footwear requirement. We checked to see if this was the case.

This is how this case is described in the article “RIA Novosti": “In 1950, at the World Championships, a funny incident happened to the whole team. Then the Indian team “received a ticket” to the final part of the championship. However, the team refused to participate in the championship due to the fact that the Indians were not allowed to play barefoot. It seems that Indian footballers missed their chance then: subsequently they were never able to make it to the championship.”

The story has appeared in countless printed football reference books and online collections interesting facts O football and just articles (for example, on websites BBC, sports.ru or RT). Moreover, this is the reason given in review 1950 World Cup on the official FIFA page.

Although the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was created in 1937, it received official recognition only 11 years later, after the country gained independence. Having become a member of FIFA, the Indians immediately had the opportunity to send their team to the first official tournament - the 1948 Olympics in London. The status of the former colony of the founders of the game did not give them any advantages - the team was composed exclusively of local natives, who had little idea of what English football was. Nevertheless, the team did not lose face - in their first and only match, the Indians lost to the French with a fighting score of 1:2, missing two penalties and missing the decisive goal in the penultimate minute. Speaking of mud: the Asians decided that only mud or rain could force them to put on boots, which in those years were considered an optional element of equipment. As a result, 8 out of 11 football players who played against France preferred a kind of foot wraps - the back of the foot was wrapped in fabric, and the front was left bare. Yes, a soccer ball in those years weighed a lot, creating a risk of injury, but the boots were also quite heavy, so the Indians gained some advantage in the speed of movement around the field.

Team India in the match against the French

Despite the defeat, the barefoot football players created a sensation - the British King George VI even invited them to dinner at Buckingham Palace, where, according to rumors, rolled up the trouser leg of the defender Sailen Manna in order to check whether his legs were made of iron.

The European championship that followed the Olympics tour showed: Indians are ready to gain a foothold on the world stage as a strong middle peasant. Moreover, luck smiled on the team: on the eve of the 1950 World Cup, all three of its rivals in the dispute for the only Asian ticket (Philippines, Indonesia and Burma) refused to fight, and the Indian team automatically received the right to play in Brazil.

And then the unexpected happened: after the draw for the final tournament, the team withdrew from the championship. Known, that FIFA did at one time notify the All India Football Federation that the team would not be allowed to play barefoot. But was this the main problem? The aforementioned Sailen Manna, who later became team captain, claimed, which is not at all. As mentioned above, three Indian footballers played in the boots at the London Olympics. The rest periodically did the same - for example, during rain, when running without shoes was too slippery and sticky.

By data Indian magazine Sports Illustrated, the All India Football Federation announced that the team will not take part in the World Cup, citing "disagreements over squad selection and insufficient training time." Similar information can be found in the archives of India's largest news agency, PTI. Often in the media mentioned Another version of refusal is financial. The flight to Brazil alone cost a lot of money and became the reason for withdrawal from the tournament Turkish national team. However, Soccer and Society deputy editor Kaushik Bandopadhyay notes: “A thorough investigation reveals that behind the apparent financial difficulties cited as the reason for the refusal, there lies a strange failure of the AIFF to appreciate the importance of participating in the World Cup, despite the organizing committee’s assurances that they would bear the bulk of the costs.”

Indeed, the financial version looks implausible, since the organizers of the World Cup were going to compensate the team for a flight from India to Brazil, and the remaining expenses were to cover four charity matches and assistance from the Bombay Football Association. But the guess that the federation simply did not take the World Cup seriously, considering the team’s ultimate goal to be the next Olympic Games, is confirmed by Sailen Manna: “We had no idea about the World Cup then. If we were better informed, we would take the initiative ourselves. For us, the Olympics were everything. There was nothing bigger than her."

In addition, Manna reports in his memoirs that the team had already been assembled and conducted three training sessions under the guidance of a specialist from England. This suggests that the ban on playing without shoes did not bother the players or coaches. “We missed a golden opportunity. And definitely not because they played barefoot. We had a team that deserved a chance." remembered 86-year-old Sailen Manna.

Many years have passed, but India still cannot forget its “golden generation” - the only one in history that had a real chance to play at the World Cup. Captain Mann for the rest of his life regretted about two things: about a missed penalty in London and about a trip to Rio that was disrupted because of stupid officials. And throughout his career, he secretly carried in his pocket a small portrait of the goddess Kali, the barefoot conqueror of demons.

Cover photo: outsideoftheboot.com.