[4] The arrival of football in Bhutan was very closely linked with the opening of schools in Haa and Paro in the 1950s, as foreign teachers, mainly from India but some from Europe, were recruited.

[5] The Bhutan Football Federation note that in the beginning there was little in the way of formal facilities or equipment and the game was played on stone-covered pitches with a ball made from a bundle of clothes.

In 1968, a team nominally representing Bhutan, but essentially consisting of foreign players traveled to Calcutta to compete in the Indian Independence Cup.

[6] Such a situation could not last, however, and in time these players either retired or returned to their home country creating a vacuum of talent which would seriously affect the national team in the years to come.

[12] They lost their first match narrowly, 1–0 to Nepal and were beaten 3–0 by eventual champions India to ensure that they finished bottom of the group and did not progress.

Dinesh Chhetri opened the scoring for Bhutan in the twenty-first minute, the first time they had led a game in their history[citation needed], only to see a potential victory disappear following two-second-half goals for Pakistan from Haroon Yousaf.

[17] An opening 3–0 loss to Nepal was perhaps not surprising, with Bhutan never having gained any form of positive result against their Himalayan neighbours, and at this point in time having scored against them only once in the ANFA Cup back in 1982.

Bhutan were seriously hampered in this game by their years in the footballing wilderness, but did not help themselves in the match conceding four penalties in total for what were described as "rugby-like challenges" and having two players sent off.

Although the Bhutan Football Federation now received substantial payments as a member of FIFA, there was still very little money in the game for players, even those who played for the national team.

[27] Players who were unemployed outside football had to exist on a stipend from the Federation of only Nu 3–5,500 per month and there were no internationally certified coaches in the country at all, only amateurs and school teachers.

[27] It is no surprise then that Bhutan was defeated in all three games in the 2003 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup, losing 6–0 to the Maldives, 2–0 to Nepal and 3–0 to hosts Bangladesh, returning home bottom of their group without scoring a single goal.

Entering the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup, they suffered narrow defeats to Nepal, 2–0 and Sri Lanka 1–0, before holding Brunei to a 0–0 draw.

Nawang Dendhup gave Bhutan the initial advantage, a lead which they held until the seventy-sixth minute when Khayrun Bin Salleh equalized.

[8] The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying competition began with a narrow 1–0 loss to the Philippines,[34] but quickly worsened as Bhutan lost 7–0 to Turkmenistan and 5–0 to the Maldives to return home yet again without a point or scoring.

Rather than being drawn in a group for initial qualification, the process was changed so that the lowest-ranked eight teams entering the competition played-off over two legs on a home-and-away basis.

This tournament produced an almost identical result to the previous SAFF championship; Bhutan opened the competition losing 3–0 to Afghanistan, then 8–2 to the Maldives despite being 2–1 up at one point and level going into halftime,[42] before rounding off another miserable year with a 5–2 loss to Sri Lanka.

[42] One of the main reasons suggested for Bhutan's significant drop in form was the amount of money available to players, even those who played for the national team.

Yeshey Dorji, one of the country's leading players, announced his retirement following the 2013 SAFF Championships, citing an inability to generate a sufficient living from football as the main reason.

[45] In the first leg in Colombo, Bhutan produced a shock result, beating their hosts 1–0, with Tshering Dorji scoring the winner in the eighty-fourth minute.

[47] Anticipation ahead of the second leg at Changlimithang ran high, a half-day holiday was declared by the government for students and public sector employees and the gates to the ground were opened four hours prior to kick off.

[56] This was a result that pleased the Bhutan Football Federation so much that they awarded all of the players involved in the match a Nu 25,000 bonus to reflect their "brilliant performance".

[59] Following their World Cup qualifying attempt, Bhutan entered the eleventh SAFF Championship, held in India between 23 December 2015 and 3 January 2016.

[60] Their performance was identical to their efforts in the last four tournaments as the team lost all three group games beginning with a 3–1 defeat to the Maldives, Tshering Dorji scoring for Bhutan after 20 minutes,[61] and followed by two 3–0 losses to Afghanistan[62] and Bangladesh[63] to be eliminated from the competition.

A final 4–2 defeat against the Maldives in Malé confirmed Bhutan's last place finish in their group with a −47 goal difference and extending their losing run in official competition to twelve games.

Bhutan ended up winning the second match 3–1,[72] giving them a 3–1 advantage on aggregate and enabling them to advance to round three of the Asian Cup qualification.

Additionally, the predominant white theme mirrors the colour of the dragon on the national flag which signifies the purity of inner thoughts and deeds that unite all the ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples of Bhutan.

[86] Unusually for a national stadium, and as a result of the conversion of the playing surface to artificial turf, the football field at Changlimithang is available for public hire and is extremely popular with people in Thimphu.

*: Includes unofficial matches in the 1986 ANFA Cup against Hong Kong Gurkhas and Nepal Youth which sources indicate were drawn but for which no score is available.

Prior to the victories over Sri Lanka, their highest FIFA ranking achieved was 187th, which they last reached in December 2008 following their semi-final performance in the 2008 SAFF Championship.

[94] However, following their performance in the second round of world cup qualifying in which they have failed to win a game, they slipped back to 193rd as of February,[95] but have since risen to 185th as of November 2017.