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The India senior men’s national team head coach Khalid Jamil, on Thursday, May 14, 2026, announced the 28-member preliminary squad for Unity Cup 2026, aiff.com reports.
India are set to assemble in Bengaluru for a brief camp after the completion of the Indian Super League 2025-26, before flying off to London on May 24 for the Unity Cup.
India head coach Khalid Jamil will assess the players during the brief camp, before selecting the final squad of 23 that will travel to London for the Unity Cup.
Jamil said: “The Unity Cup will be the perfect opportunity for us to prepare for the official tournaments like the SAFF Championship later this year. We need to utilise every available FIFA International Window to prepare for the tournaments we have up ahead.
“We have selected the 28 players for the preliminary squad, as per their performances in the ongoing ISL. We will have a couple of days to assess them before we pick the final 23.”
Also Read: Unity Cup: Zimbabwe Unveil Squad For Super Eagles Clash
India (136th in FIFA rankings) will play Jamaica (ranked 71st) in the second semi-final on May 27 midnight (May 28 in IST), while Nigeria’s Super Eagles (ranked 26th) take on Zimbabwe (ranked 130th) in the first semi-final at the same time. The two losing teams will play the third-place play-off on June 30.
The India head coach feels that playing against stronger opposition will help boost the team.
“We are playing against strong teams that play at a good level. I think these matches will give a lot of confidence to the players and help us play at that level. We should play more matches like these.”
The Super Eagles are the Unity Cup defending champions after defeating Jamaica on penalties in the 2025 edition in London.
4 Comments
India, lol? Are we playing cricket? Oh, football, another fabled 99 – 0 loading? Lol.
Is Nigeria really doing itself any favors with this year’s tournament? The 26th-ranked country is playing with 71st, 130th, and 136th-ranked countries. Even if we play all 3 and beat them 10 – 0 each, absolutely no gain! Nothing will happen to our ranking, whereas each of the other 3 have everything to gain even with a draw against us.
Why can’t the NFF insist on the quality of opponents before agreeing to take part in the Unity Cup? We should be playing countries between the 1st and 30th as a serious footballing nation. And I thought this Unity Cup was for countries with black or African origin? When did India come into the mix??? I doubt our elite players will want to participate in this year’s edition.
It will get better Kel. In September, the Super Eagles are set to play Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Djibouti in the Disunity Cup of Nations. 🙂
With the way the NFF are running our football to the ground, we should be grateful that any country wants to even play the Super Eagles, regardless of pedigree. After all, isn’t it the same NFF telling us that no country wants to play record Wafcon winners Super Falcons in friendlies, when we see South Africa playing friendlies against teams like England!
At this stage, let us celebrate when the Super Eagles line up friendlies against Cuba, Nicaragua and Vietnam.
Lol @deo. And to think the “hardworking” NFF recently secured friendlies against other “football powerhouses” like Jordan and Iran for the SE, while the ladies couldn’t even secure an opponent, just as Zambia was battling Brazil.
After the 11th WAFCON feat of 2024 and the men’s loss of the 2026 WC ticket, I consoled myself with the belief that the ladies would certainly be at the Brazil 2027 World Cup. But tbh, I’m starting to doubt it.
With the state of unpreparedness, our competitors for one of the 4 tickets would no longer be Morocco, Zambia, and South Africa, but others are fast catching up, like Malawi has been showing recently. Imagine coming up against any of these in the QF.
Kel is “starting to doubt” super falcons. A feeling I’ve since normalized. Gusau is off his limits and sadly falcons will be his next victims. No cap.
I’m resigned myself to fate. I blame not NFF though. Falcons have a coach that is typical character of home based coaches – tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
Ah, Madugu should be blamed.
Chelle is using unity cup to test new players but so called first team to play Poland and Portugal in June.
I’m not bothered about unity cup opposition.
That’s what foreign coaches force NFF to do. Super eagles who broke our hearts by the no show at the world cup having played three times more games than falcons in 9 months.
What does Madugu say? No nation in the universe wants to play us. Aura from a coach. Less endowed nations are raking games upon games.
Anyway, no third place best loser slot at the next WAFCON. Idle teams will be punished.
Leagues would have finished by then yet falcons have “old women” that will be very inactive by July.
No replacements or new faces blended in even closed door games and falcons have a coach who claims to have submitted 2026 programme.
We can’t count the times Waldrum made noise during his time but now, we hear only small noise from the players WITH ZERO RESPONSE.
Eagles are playing Poland and Portugal apart from this india games. They are doing well.
For falcons, I saw this coming but thought my agitations on CS would meet responsible people eyes. Alas, the cookies will seriously crumble.
Blessing in disguise? Gusau would not bother about reelection anymore by the time.
He’s not even to visit America at all but after sharing the money on the DRC petition wild goose chase, he go still go.
Falcons will be collateral damage.
Falconets couldn’t beat malawi under 20 last weekend who is ONLY RUNNING THEIR 2ND EVER WOMEN U20 QUALIFIERS against us doing so SINCE 2002.
Our women football rulership is gone – hopefully for now UNTIL GUSAU AND EGUAVOEN ARE KICKED OUT IN SEPTEMBER.