During the start of the tournament, Nepal played their first official match against Hong Kong (14 December 1986), which they lost with a score of 1–0.

Nepal proved to be in a difficult group with former champions Thailand, alongside Indonesia and Hong Kong, two relatively strong teams.

This resulted in meagre points for Nepal, who lost every game by a wide margin, the smallest 0–3 against Hong Kong.

Singh later became the first newsreader in Nepali television history, and Chaudhary has held a rank of DSP in Nepal police.

This negatively affected player recruitment, but nevertheless Nepal soon returned to international football during the Women's Asian Cup in 1999.

[3] Nepal had a long period without matches, but they impressed many in the South Asian Games in 2010, where they reached the final after beating several opponents by a wide margin.

[4] In the opening match of the 2010 South Asian Games, Nepal women's U23 faced hosts Bangladesh, where they won with a single goal.

The second match against Sri Lanka proved to be more illustrious as victory came in the form of 8 goals while holding a clean sheet.

This meant that Nepal would face a difficult rematch against India in the finals, although any result would ensure a medal at the very least for the Chelis.

Despite putting on a valiant performance, the Chelis returned home with a silver medal which came to the delight of many supporters of Nepali football due to the rarity of the occasion.

Prior to the 2013 SAFF Championship in Nepal, the Dasarath Rangasala underwent heavy renovation that saw several improvements such as the expansion of seats from 20,000 to 25,000.