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

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.Asian Games Day 6 LIVE updatesIndia'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.