Finland participated the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, beating Italy and the Russian Empire, but losing the bronze medal match against the Netherlands.

The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation football team in turn, participated in the competitions of the international labour movement.

[8] In 1937, Finland participated the FIFA World Cup qualification for the first time, losing all three matches against Sweden, Germany and Estonia.

Finland was invited to take part in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after many Western countries announced they would boycott the games, but failed to progress from its group.

Hopes were high going into qualification for Euro 2004 after the promising last campaign and friendly wins over the likes of Norway, Belgium and Portugal (which seen the Finns jump from 40th to 30th in the Elo ranking[4]).

In qualification for the 2006 World Cup Finland failed to score a single point in six matches against the top three teams in their group, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Romania.

The 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign under new head coach Stuart Baxter saw Finland again finish third in their group with five wins, three draws and two defeats.

During the Euro 2012 qualifying, head coach Baxter was sacked, and on 31 March 2011 he was replaced by former national team player Mixu Paatelainen.

They achieved a somewhat noteworthy result; Joel Pohjanpalo's goal gave the Finns a 1–0 win at former European champions Greece, who had reached the second round of the 2014 World Cup and were the top seeds of their qualifying group.

[16] On 12 December 2016, Backe was fired during the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, and a former assistant and caretaker Markku Kanerva was named the new head coach.

Kanerva had renewed the roster, as veterans including Perparim Hetemaj, Niklas Moisander and Alexander Ring, had announced their retirement from international duty.

Later in the Autumn 2020, the second edition of UEFA Nations League started, and Finland was drawn in the Group 4 with Wales, Ireland and Bulgaria.

They defeated both Ireland and Bulgaria home and away, but lost both games against Wales and finished 2nd in the group and missed the promotion to next season's League A.

The long-served defenders Jukka Raitala, Paulus Arajuuri and Joona Toivio announced their retirement from international football after the qualifiers.

Finland ended the qualifying campaign with two wins in the last two matches, including 4–0 victory over Northern Ireland at home in November, and finished third in the group.

[22] After a run of mediocre results and the lack of reaching out the best potential out of the team, the speculations had started about the extension of Kanerva's contract as his previous deal was going to expire soon.

He had successfully called-up new younger generation players to the roster, including Kaan Kairinen, Benjamin Källman, Oliver Antman, Daniel Håkans and Matti Peltola.

[24] The assistant coaches Mika Nurmela and Toni Korkeakunnas would be replaced by Jani Honkavaara, and by former long-time national team players Teemu Tainio and Tim Sparv.

Finland lost both games against Greece and England away with apathetic performances, which signaled outside that Kanerva had a very little more to give for this team anymore.

[25][26] According to Helsingin Sanomat, Kanerva is only a puppet leader of the national team until the 2024 Veikkausliiga season is finished and then a current assistant coach Jani Honkavaara, also a current manager of Veikkausliiga club KuPS, can be named a sole head coach of the national team who then later allegedly declined the job offer.

[29] On 20 January 2025, the Finnish FA announced that Danish coach Jacob Friis was named the new manager of the Finland national team, on a three-year deal with an option for the possible UEFA Euro 2028 final tournament.

The team returned permanently to Helsinki Olympic Stadium in 2020, after the delayed reconstruction and renovation was finished, but had to play some of the first games without an audience due to pandemic.

In the five home matches during the UEFA Euro 2024 qualification campaign, Huuhkajat had the record audience average of 31,406 (157,029 in total), which corresponds to around 97 per cent of the stadium's full capacity.

Win Draw Loss Fixture [32] The following players were called up for UEFA Nations League matches against Republic of Ireland and Greece on 14 and 17 November 2024, respectively.