AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: India have been drawn in Group D of the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023, which is set to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 11-14, 2023.

Joining the eTigers in Group D are Israel, South Africa, Peru, Germany and Sweden.

The FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 will be held as part of the FIFAe Finals 2023 organised by FIFA in conjunction with Gamers8 Festival at the Riyadh Boulevard arena. The total prize pool of FIFAe Nations Cup has doubled from last year's $500k to $1Million this year.

Representing the eTigers, Saransh Jain, Charanjot Singh and Saksham Rattan will participate in the event coached by Siddh Chandarana.

The FIFAe Nations Cup, having started in 2019, is the pinnacle event for countries in the FIFA esports ecosystem, wherein 24 nations compete for the coveted trophy. France won the inaugural edition in 2019 while Brazil secured the title last year.

The event will have 24 national teams competing against each other in a 2v2 format played on EA Sports FIFA 23 FUT mode. Each team consists of three players with four groups of six teams. The group stage will be played in a double round robin format and 4 teams from each group will advance to the knockout stages, from Round of 16 to final.

🇮🇳 will compete in Group D of @FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 alongside Israel 🇮🇱, South Africa 🇿🇦, Peru 🇵🇪, Germany 🇩🇪 and Sweden 🇸🇪 starting 1️⃣1️⃣th July 🗓️#FeNC 🏆 #FIFAe #eFootball #IndianFootball ⚽️ #FameYourGame #eTigers 🐯 pic.twitter.com/uXSyR2ONbZ

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) July 2, 2023

This will be India’s second appearance in the pinnacle event, after a group-stage exit from the tournament in 2022.

The eTigers began their FIFAe Nations Series 2023 journey in December, 2022, in the Play-Ins stage, progressing then to the Playoffs after making their way through the Online Qualifiers Main Stage in April.

Represented by Charanjot, Saransh, Siddh, and Saksham, they narrowly lost the first round of the double-elimination bracket in the Playoffs to Indonesia (2-3 on aggregate) in a close encounter but fought back with consecutive victories against New Zealand (0-9 on aggregate), Japan (1-2 on aggregate), Malaysia (3-1 on aggregate), Singapore (2-3 on aggregate) and twice against Australia (2-4 & 8-3 on aggregate) before becoming the Champions of the FIFAe Nations Playoffs 2023 in the Asia and Oceania region.

India, the second-highest ranked team in its group, at No. 6, with Sweden sitting two spots above it in the World Rankings, will hope to make it to the final stage in Riyadh.