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| - Fact Check: Yes, Indian footballers played barefoot in the '48 Olympics, but it WASN'T because of poverty
Several Indian footballers played barefoot in the 1948 Olympics but it wasn't for the lack of resources.
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India Today Fact Check
India lost that match. However, eight out of the eleven footballers played without boots, which was only because they were more comfortable playing barefoot. Not because of a lack of funds.
FIFA, the apex body of international football, recently suspended India’s top administrative organisation, the All India Football Federation, for “undue influence from third parties”. The Bureau of the FIFA council also took away India’s rights to hold the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022. Following this decision, social media were flooded with posts related to Indian football.
One such post was a photo of three Indian footballers walking barefoot on the field. It was captioned: “This is the photo of the Indian football team playing against France in the 1948 London Olympics. The match was tied 1-1. We couldn't win because our players didn't have shoes. Even though they were injured by the other team’s boots, the match resulted in a draw.”
The post also said, “Indian footballers did not have shoes because our government didn't have money. This was a time when Nehru's clothes were dry cleaned in Paris and he used to travel in a private jet with his dog.”
It added, “FIFA banned India from participating in the 1950 World Cup because you can’t play without shoes. After that, India never participated in the FIFA World Cup. Despite this, so many stadiums in India are named after the Nehru-Gandhi family.”
AFWA’s investigation found that such posts distort the context of Indian footballers playing bare feet. Let’s look at what really happened. Archived versions of similar posts can be seen here and here.
Not the complete picture
We reverse-searched the photo and found it was shared by the official Twitter account of the All India Football Federation on July 31, 2021. The tweet said, “On this day, 73 years ago, the Blue Tigers played their first International match as citizens of an independent India, when they took on France, narrowly losing the match 1-2, at the 1948 London Olympics.”
On this day, 73 years ago, the #BlueTigers played their first International match as citizens of an independent India , when they took on France , narrowly losing the match 1-2, at the 1948 London @Olympics #Olympics #BackTheBlue #IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/wZ1OxsAcXD — Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) July 31, 2021
This debunked one of the claims that the match ended in a draw. Second, we also noticed that in the photo shared by the AIFF, there was a fourth Indian player, who was wearing shoes. This proved that the viral photo was cropped to give it a false spin.
AFWA spoke to sports historian and statistician Goutam Roy, who confirmed that the footballer wearing boots was a defender, Thenmadom Mathew Varghese, popularly known as Pappan.
But why were others bare feet?
We found an archived edition of The Indian Express from August 1, 1948, which carried a report about India's defeat against the French.
Additionally, Goutam Roy told AFWA that money was not a problem for the Indian football team. He said, “Back then, Indians were not used to playing with boots on, and that’s why most footballers did not wear shoes during that match. It was only after the 1-10 defeat against Yugoslavia in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, that boots were made mandatory in Indian football.”
So yes, several Indian footballers played barefoot in the 1948 Olympics. But it wasn’t for the lack of resources. Indian players were simply more comfortable playing that way.
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