Have you ever heard the sound of sixty thousand hearts breaking simultaneously? It sounds like, well... nothing. Just a vast, sudden, emptiness where there once was a wall of noise.

It's eerie.

On Monday, Jamal Bhuyan, captain of the Bangladesh national football team, all swagger and smirking confidence, had promised he'd break Indian hearts. On Tuesday, he did just that. It was his wicked delivery that Gurpreet Singh Sandhu flapped at, that Saad Uddin turned in to give Bangladesh the surprise lead...

On Tuesday, in a crucial World Cup qualifier, India salvaged a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh with a last-gasp goal from a corner. From the high of Doha, Indian football seems to have returned to its normal resting state: oh-no-not-this-again.

Forty-five minutes of insipid football from the Indians was followed by a forty-five of chaotic endeavour. They over-complicated set pieces. They over-simplified open play. They did not defend well. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu went from hero who stopped Qatar to the...

Adil Khan's late equaliser helped India avoid a shock defeat against lower-ranked Bangladesh in their third group game of the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday. Despite an improved second-half performance, the hosts will rue their poor start, and particularly some sloppy defending that cost them two points in a game they were favourites to win. 

Report: Adil saves India's blushes against Bangladesh

Positives

After a disappointing first...

The Indian Super League (ISL) as the top division of Indian football from the 2019-20 season, an expanded ISL season from 2021-22, promotion to the ISL for the I-League champions from the following season, and promotion and relegation in the ISL from 2024-25.

These are the highlights of the roadmap for Indian football that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) suggested to stakeholders of Indian football -- team owners of ISL and I-League clubs, and their...