A 0-0 win, a $500 review and Asian Games heartbreak: How Mongolia's no-show cost India's eFootball medal hopes

India suffered a cruel twist of fate on Wednesday in Aichi-Nagoya after Mongolia's no-show in a decisive group-stage match saw the eFootball team of Danial Patel and Chinmay Sahoo get eliminated, ending their medal hopes at the 2026 Asian Games.

Patel and Sahoo had begun their campaign with a 0-0 draw against Uzbekistan, who then beat Mongolia 6-3 and 12-0 across the mobile and console games, leaving them with a substantial positive goal difference of +15.

Uzbekistan's results meant India needed a strong result against Mongolia to progress to the knockouts and keep their medal hopes alive. But the Mongolian team failed to report within the stipulated check-in time, arriving three minutes late and resulting in a forfeit.

Under the tournament rules, India were awarded the win, tying them with Uzbekistan on points in Group F. But because it was recorded as a 0-0 forfeit win, India gained no goal-difference advantage, resulting in their elimination as Uzbekistan progressed from Group F.

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India's console player Sahoo told The Bridge that India did protest the decision, but it led nowhere.

"We protested and said that we want to play the games instead of a forfeit win, but they [officials] said a forfeit win is what the rules say," he said. "We were told we could pay $500 for a judge panel check."

India eventually decided against going ahead with the review.

"The thing is $500 is kind of a waste of money, because they have mentioned that coming late is a forfeit according to the rules," he added. "Unless they gave us a 3-0, 3-0 walkover with a +6 goal difference, we were not qualifying."

India also missed out on qualification as one of the best second-placed teams in the draw, with Thailand (+3) and Saudi Arabia (+2) progressing to the quarterfinals.

This was a frustrating end for India, with Patel being the reigning Asian eFootball champion. The exit ended India's hopes of winning a first Asian Games esports medal after they failed to win one at the 2022 edition.

Uzbekistan eventually reached the semifinals but lost to Malaysia. Iran emerged as the eFootball champions.