India, April 12 -- Whenever the Indian national football team gets thrashed by its rivals in international hustings, the national coach Igor Stimac has a readymade answer. "This result is on expected lines. There is nothing unusual in this result," Stimac tells the media. He has been the chief coach of the country since 2019 and according to FIFA, the world body that controls the game, India's ranking is 121. At a time when India is on an all out war to emerge as the third largest economy in the world, out national football side reminds one of a rudderless ship getting battered and bruised in the high seas.

There is nothing surprising about the performance of the Indian football team in the international arena as since the last 1960s, th...