These early days were under the Northern Mariana Islands Soccer Federation or NMISF, with their first, confirmed international action coming in 1998, at the 1998 Micronesian Games.
At an unknown point, though by 2003, they were admitted as an associate member of the Oceania Football Confederation.
[2] However, by this point, NMISF were beginning to fall apart, with football on the islands reducing to a few hundred or so players in a less organized structure.
Full EAFF membership would follow in September 2008, paving the way for them to apply to the Asian Football Confederation, where they were admitted as an associate member in July 2009, following their requested release from the Oceania Football Confederation in June 2009.
August 2009 would see the women's national football team debut in EAFF competition, with national sides competing at every age level from U14 to seniors for men and women in AFC and EAFF competition across 2010–20.