AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation has signed the Participation Agreement with FIFA for the FIFAe Nations 2023 and India will be a part of the flagship competitive gaming series of FIFA for its Member Associations for the third consecutive year.

India currently ranked 18 globally in the FIFAe Nations Ranking had qualified for the pinnacle event of FIFA eSports for MAs - the FIFAe Nations Cup - in the 2022 season, for the first time ever. However, our eTigers missed out on a chance to qualify to the knockout stages of the FIFAe Nations Cup 2022 held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

India will be participating from the Asia and Oceania server region in the FIFAe Nations Series 2023. Other countries in the region are Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea Republic, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Macau, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei.  

Our eTigers will begin their campaign in Division 1 of the Asia and Oceania region for Matchweek 1 of the FIFAe Nations Play-Ins Stage, alongside Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea Republic and Hong Kong. The Matchweek 1 of the FIFAe Nations Play-Ins 2023 will be played from December 15-16, 2022 whereas Matchweek 2 & 3 will be held during Jan 26-27 and March 2-3, 2023 respectively. 

The team finishing top of Division 1 after Matchweek 3 and the team with the most Consistency Points after the three Matchweeks get direct qualification to FIFAe Nations Playoffs slated to take place in May 2023 while the teams not qualifying from the Play-Ins will get a second chance at the FIFAe Nations Online Qualifiers in April 2023 where they will get to compete with newly joined MAs for a place in the Play Offs.

A total of 23 teams and the host nation (TBD) will qualify for the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 (dates & venue TBA by FIFA). 

The Roster for the FIFAe Nations Play-Ins 2023 are: 

1.    Aditya Chadha
2.    Charanjot Singh
3.    Lokmanyu Chaturvedi 
4.    Navin Haridoss
5.    Sagnik Banerjee
6.    Saksham Rattan
7.    Saransh Jain
8.    Siddh Chandarana
9.    Vignesh Balaji  

While Charanjot, Siddh, Lokmanyu and Vignesh have been part of the team since 2021, Saransh, Navin and Sagnik made it to the squad through the AIFF eFootball Challenge 2022 tournament. Saksham Rattan (from Pune) and Aditya Chadha (from Dalhousie) have also been called up for National duty thanks to stellar performances in the FIFA Global Series 22 which helped them finish at #10  and #14 positions respectively in the Asia South Rankings. India will also be playing Indonesia in a friendly game today (Sunday, November 27, 2022) as a part of their preparation.