During the time of the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, eligibility criteria for the national team were quite lax, a minimum residency requirement of two years meant that the national team often included a number of contractors working on Saipan who were not of Northern Marianan heritage.

The Northern Mariana Islands made their international debut in an exhibition football tournament associated with the 1998 Micronesia Games.

[4][5] The team avenged their earlier group stage defeat to Guam in the final, beating them 3–0 to claim the tournament title.

[4] Charles Kewo and Christopher Guerrero scored in the opening quarter of an hour to give the Northern Mariana Islands a 2–0 half time lead, a lead they extended in the second half through an unknown goalscorer (although other sources suggest Guerrero was the scorer[3]) to seal their victory.

The original governing body for football in the country, the Northern Mariana Islands Soccer Federation became defunct sometime between 2002 and 2003 and after that, no international competition took place until the current governing body, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association (NMIFA) was founded in 2005.

[7] At the time it was hoped that the establishment of an official men's competition would provide the means by which players who could meet the citizenship and eligibility criteria to represent the country at future tournaments might become involved.

[7] Under the auspices of the Northern Mariana Islands Soccer Federation, teams entered into tournaments such as the 1998 Micronesian Games included a number of foreign players working on Saipan as contractors.

For the Northern Mariana Islands specifically, the only eligibility requirements players needed to fulfill was a two-year residency.

[3] In December 2006, the East Asian Football Federation admitted the Northern Mariana Islands as a provisional member.

The first leg, played in Saipan, resulted in a 3–2 loss for the Northern Mariana Islands[10] Mark McDonald twice equalized after Guam had taken the lead only for Zachary Pangelinan to score the winning goal in the 72nd minute.

[11] Unfortunately the return leg in Hagatna a week later produced a much more one-sided result as Guam were victorious 9–0, Pangelinan scoring five times and four other players scoring once[10] to ensure that Guam not only progressed to the next round of the EAFF competition but also that they were the winners of the inaugural Marianas Cup, a perpetual trophy contested each time the two nations play each other.

[12] Although there was disappointment in not winning, national newspapers commented that the performance was an improvement over the "shocking" 9–0 defeat in their previous encounter.

[12] Prior to their AFC membership being accepted, the team made the short trip to Yona, Guam to compete in the preliminary round of the 2010 East Asian Football Championship.

This time, instead of the two-legged playoffs against Guam contested in the previous edition, the Northern Mariana Islands took part in a four team group, the winner of which would advance to the next round.

[17] It was the NMIFA which resigned from the OFC, despite it being the earlier governing body, the Northern Mariana Islands Soccer Federation which had become a member in the first place.

Despite the efforts of the NMIFA, delays in decision making around whether the 2011 Pacific Games football tournament would double as a FIFA World Cup qualifying event meant that the national team were unable to enter.

[18] As a result, no games were played for the next two years until July 2012 when The Blue Ayuyus entered the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup First Preliminary Round, hosted again by Guam.

[19] New coach Chikashi Suzuki was conscious of the need to snap the losing run of matches against Guam, had recognized that previous squads had contained a large number of veteran players and called up a number of younger players such as Lucas Knecht and Bo Barry who were playing college and high school football respectively in the United States.

[19] However, the team still included a wide age range of players, Enrico del Rosario and Brian Lee were the youngest at 15 with Dan Westphal the oldest at 42.

Macau took a 2–0 lead at half time, despite resolute defending from the Blue Ayuyus in the first twenty minutes, and although Kirk Schuler was able to halve the deficit in the 51st minute, Macau scored three more goals, including a penalty to eliminate the Northern Mariana Islands at the first hurdle for the third consecutive time.

[23] In 2013, the team played their first ever series of matches against opposition from outside the EAFF, taking part in the qualifying rounds for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup.

[24] With the football federation founded only a year prior to the inaugural edition of the AFC Challenge Cup, the team not only had to acclimatize to the elevated environment in which they would be playing, they would also have to face some very strong teams in the shape of Palestine, Bangladesh and Nepal[24] In their opening game against Nepal, they were dominated from the start, with Bharat Khawas opening the scoring in the fourth minute and completing his hat trick in the 72nd, with three other Nepalese players completing a 6–0 rout.

[28] Following an initial 4–0 loss to Mongolia,[28] on 23 July 2014, the Northern Mariana Islands recorded their first ever international win in a match against Macau.

During the send off to the competition, Ralph Torres, the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands committed to the team that the government would provide a new pitch in Koblerville, the ground breaking for which it took place in October 2016.

[31] The team was not able to repeat the comparative successes of the previous qualifying campaign however, losing all three games and being eliminated at the first stage again.

the team lost their first match against Chinese Taipei 8–1, a result made all the more easy for their opponents once striker Joe Wang Miller was sent off for a second yellow card in added time at the end of the first half.

[40] On 27 November 2023, Northern Mariana Islands records their second victory against FIFA-Affiliated team by winning 4-0 against American Samoa.

[41] The Northern Mariana Islands play their home matches at the Oleai Sports Complex, a multi-use stadium in Saipan.

[56] Note: It is possible that Michael Barry may also have made a senior international appearance in the teams 1–1 Marianas Cup match against Guam in 2010 aged 14 years and 251 days, which would make him the eighth youngest debutant in history.

[56] The Northern Mariana Islands have only entered three formal international competitions, the AFC Challenge Cup, the EAFF East Asian Championship and the Micronesian Games.