As is true elsewhere on the sub-continent, top-level football in Sri Lanka stands somewhat in the shadow of the country's Cricket team.

However, Sri Lanka national football team had managed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2015 SAFF Championship.

There is evidence of it being played in Galle Face, a sandy area near the coast, by British servicemen stationed in Colombo in the 1890s.

The British administrative service and the planting community enthusiastically took it to the Central, Southern, and Up-Country regions.

The trophies of the early tournaments were the De Mel Shield and the Times of Ceylon Cup.

Football also became popular in the country's Southern Provence, where the planting and administrative community promoted the game.

On 24 October 1953, Tom Ossen, a product of Dharmaraja College, scored the country's first official international goal against Burma at the 1953 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament.

[9] During 2022 World Cup campaign however, Sri Lanka suffered another poor performance as the team fell 0–1 in Zhuhai to Macau.

As predicted, Sri Lanka proved too weak for the group, losing all matches without scoring a single goal as for the end of 2019, and was eliminated from World Cup contention.

Sri Lanka had improved since then, and participated in the 2020 Bangabandhu Cup, but the team still finished bottom with two defeats and no goal.

In February 2020, the Football Federation of Sri Lanka announced the appointment of Bosnian-Australian specialist Amir Alagić as head coach of the national team.

[13] However, after the issue was settled, the ban was lifted allowing Sri Lanka to take part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification under a strict condition: FFSL must conduct a new election ten days before the fixture against Yemen; failure to do so would result in automatic disqualification of the team.

[15] Sri Lanka then participated in the first round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification facing against Yemen on 12 October 2023 but lost 4–1 on aggregate in the process.

In September 2024, Sri Lanka then played in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification play-off round against Cambodia in which the aggregate was tied on 2–2 where Claudio Kammerknecht scored in the 120+2th minute in extra time to send the game to penalties shoot-out.

[16] In September 2024, Mohamed Al-Mutairi was appointed as head coach to prepare the team for the next stage of qualification.

[17] Sri Lanka is scheduled to play six international friendlies in 2025 to build match fitness and test tactical adjustments ahead of the third round.

[18] The third round of qualification will take place in 2025, where Sri Lanka has been drawn into Group D alongside Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Chinese Taipei.

Only the group winners will advance to the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Finals.

All the FIFA World Cup qualification matches of Sri Lankan team also played in this ground.

Win Draw Loss Fixture Caps and goals are correct as of 13 October 2024 after the game against  Myanmar.