India’s head coach Igor Stimac feels allowing Indian-origin players to represent the tricolour would be of huge help for Indian football. Iraq recently stunned Japan in the group stage of the AFC Asian Cup, has 11 Iraqi-origin players in its squad who are either born or brought up out of the country but picked to represent the country of their origin

According to the existing Indians laws, the government has banned the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) from representing India internationally since 2008.

Also, Dual citizenship is not permitted in India under the Constitution of India and the Citizenship Act of 1955. Thus, OCI and PIO cardholders will have to surrender their passports and also stay in the country for at least 12 months to apply for an Indian passport and then represent the Blue Tigers.

“I’m not sure if there is any other country which is not allowing players of their origin to represent their country,” he said.

“It is a huge handicap because there are many good players of Indian origin playing in the top leagues of Europe. So it could be a huge help if we speak about bigger achievements.

Interestingly, Morocco finished fourth in the FIFA World Cup 2022 but fourteen members of their 26-member squad were born out of the country.

On the other hand, India suffered a 3-0 loss against Uzbekistan in their second match of the AFC Asian Cup. The Croatian has vowed to bounce back strongly against Syria.

“Let ourselves down last night. We slipped up early and didn’t give ourselves a chance to stick to the game plan. We knew Uzbekistan’s attack will be trickier than Australia, and didn’t deal with it well in the first half. Disappointed but not giving up, more work to do,” Igor Stimac posted on X.

India will face Syria on Tuesday at the Al Bayt Stadium.