Football in Bhutan

Association football is a sport with a comparatively brief history in Bhutan, one that, having had an initial period of favour in the mid-twentieth century when it was first introduced to the country by visiting teachers from India and Europe, has only achieved significant renewed popularity in the last few years following the advent of satellite television broadcasting in the country, with the national sport being Archery. Consequently, the domestic game is underdeveloped. After the establishment of an initial league in the late 1980s, little in the way of recorded competition took place until the mid-1990s when a formal championship, the A-Division, was created.

However, although this was nominally a national league, it was in reality merely a competition for teams based in Thimphu. This championship developed into its current three-tiered format, but remained resolutely Thimphu-focused until an annual, true national competition, the National League, was established in 2012. Unfortunately, due to financial and transportation issues, this competition has only added at most another three teams to the overall number competing. Throughout the history of football in Bhutan, its clubs have remained in the third tier of continental competition within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the AFC President's Cup, and have more often than not struggled to compete in this competition. They have had slightly more success within their regional federation, the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), but again have consistently been recognised as one of the weaker teams.

It is no surprise then that the national team is currently ranked by FIFA as the worst in the world, without a single ranking point, and fourth worst (including non-FIFA teams) in the all-time Elo ratings. The team play irregularly, mainly competing in the SAFF Championship or the qualifying rounds of the AFC Challenge Cup. They have only played 60 full internationals in their history and are the only member of FIFA never to have attempted to qualify for the World Cup. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is currently their first attempt at qualifying. They have beaten Sri Lanka in the first round 2–1 on aggregate and have qualified for the Second Round.