After being initially canceled due to schedule conflicts with both UEFA and AFC qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 SheBelieves Cup leaving many of the prior year's participants, including reigning champions England, unable to attend,[1] the tournament was rescheduled with the Football Association of Finland as tournament organizers and a scaled-down field of eight national teams.

[2] Austria defeated Poland in a final between two first-time participants in the Cyprus Cup.

For the group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order:[3] For the first time in Cyprus Cup history, all participants were from UEFA.

Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Wales all made their first appearance in the tournament.

[4] Prior co-organisers the Netherlands were instead hosting the 2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, England instead competed in the 2016 SheBelieves Cup, and Scotland were controversially kept away by their performance director Brian McClair, who preferred to play a single friendly against Spain in Falkirk.