The Bhutan national football team (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་གི་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་རྐང་རྩེད་སྡེ་ཚན) represents Bhutan in men's international football. The team is controlled by the governing body for football in Bhutan, the Bhutan Football Federation, which is a member of the Asian Football Federation and the regional South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The team plays its home games at the Changlimithang Stadium in the capital Thimphu.
The side has consistently been ranked as one of the worst national teams in the world on both the official FIFA rankings and the Elo rating system. As of the end of November 2017, they have only won six competitive fixtures and have a goal difference of −279. The team have never qualified for a major tournament and, beyond friendlies and qualifying matches, their only participation in an official competition has been in the regional South Asian Games and the South Asian Football Federation Cup.
Contents
History
Beginning (1950s–1980s)
There is uncertainty around how football was ultimately brought to Bhutan. During the colonial period in Bhutan, although it had signed treaties with the government of India which ceded control of its defence and foreign relations to the British, continued to function as an independent state and was never under the direct rule of the British government in India. Whereas Indians were introduced to football by the British government, the lack of a permanent British presence in Bhutan meant that foreign sports were not played there. The arrival of football in Bhutan was very closely linked with the opening of schools in Haa and Paro in the 1950s, as foreign teachers, mainly from India but some from Europe, were recruited. The Bhutan Football Federation note that in the beginning there was little in the way of formal facilities or equipment and the game was played on stone-covered pitches with a ball made from a bundle of clothes. The game continued to grow as more Bhutanese went abroad, mainly to India, to study and helped increase the popularity of the sport upon their return, though the game was still considered to be just that and was not really developed during this period.
The main centers for football during the 1960s were Phuentsholing and Samtse, close to the border with India, where hastily arranged teams would travel back and forth over the border to play neighboring tea gardens. In 1968, a team nominally representing Bhutan, but essentially consisting of foreign players, traveled to Calcutta to compete in the Indian Independence Cup. Over time, football gradually increased in popularity until it was seen as an essential part of the school curriculum, with numerous school tournaments established within Thimphu. Teams used to travel from all over the country to take part, some coming from as far away as Khaling. However, regardless of the popularity of the game amongst the Bhutanese, the notion of a Bhutan "national team" consisting almost entirely of foreigners persisted for some time, and this team would regularly travel abroad to take part in international competitions such as the ANFA Cup, with a team consisting of around 60% Indian players. These Indian players were brought to Bhutan and given jobs within the Civil Service, although essentially their role was to play football.
In the late 1970s and early 1980, as well as playing several matches in Bhutan, the representative team, known as Druk 11, also played a number of games outside the country in Nepal and India, against representative teams such as the Food Corporation of India. At that time, eight out of the eleven members of the team were from India. Such a situation could not last, however, and in time these players either retired or returned to their home country creating a vacuum of talent which would seriously affect the national team in the years to come.
Stagnation (1990s–2000s)
Despite establishing the first recorded football league in Bhutan in 1986, and while the Bhutan Football Federation was admitted as member of the AFC in 1994, the national team did not compete in any matches following their defeat to Nepal in the South Asian Games until 1999, missing four editions of the Games, returning only in 1999.
Their absence from the international arena had not seen an improvement in the standard of their football, even though there had been a national championship established in the country for the previous four seasons. Their first game against hosts Nepal ended in a resounding 7–0 defeat. The team found themselves 3–0 down within the first twenty minutes as Hari Khadka scored in the first and fifth minutes, with Naresh Joshi extending the lead after eighteen. Bhutan were able to keep Nepal at bay for the rest of the half, but conceded two more either side of the hour mark courtesy of Deepak Amatya and Rajan Rayamajhi before a brace from Basanta Thapa sealed an emphatic victory for Nepal. They performed better defensively in their next match, but still lost 3–0 to India, Vijayam Imivalappil scoring all three goals for India. Out of the competition, Bhutan faced a dead-rubber against Pakistan, who were also eliminate prior to the fixture following losses to India and Nepal. With nothing to play for, they produced their best performance of the tournament. Dinesh Chhetri opened the scoring for Bhutan in the twenty-first minute, the first time they had led a game in their history, only to see a potential victory disappear following two-second-half goals for Pakistan from Haroon Yousaf.
At the turn of the century, having spent the best part of the last two decades competing only against teams within South Asia, Bhutan made their first foray into international football at a continental level, competing in the qualification rounds for the 2000 AFC Asian Cup. This tournament was to be one of the lowest points in the history of the admittedly hastily assembled national team. An opening 3–0 loss to Nepal was perhaps not surprising, with Bhutan never having gained any form of positive result against their Himalayan neighbours, and at this point in time having scored against them only once in the ANFA Cup back in 1982. Four days later they faced Kuwait and were beaten 20–0. Seven of the ten Kuwaiti outfield players got their names on the scoresheet that day, including Bashar Abdullah who scored eight and Jassem Al-Houwaidi who scored five. Bhutan were seriously hampered in this game by their years in the footballing wilderness, but did not help themselves in the match conceding four penalties in total for what were described as "rugby-like challenges" and having two players sent off. This defeat was a world record international defeat, though this most undesirable of records was only held for fourteen months when Australia beat Tonga 22–0. As of 2016 this remains their worst ever result. Further heavy defeats were to follow, an 8–0 loss to Turkmenistan was followed by an 11–2 defeat to Yemen. Following this qualifying tournament, having been established in 1983, the Bhutan Football Federation was admitted as the 204th member of FIFA.
The Other Final (2002)
Their defeats in 2000 in AFC Cup qualifying had left Bhutan ranked as the world's second worst national team with thirteen points in the official FIFA rankings, sandwiched between American Samoa above and Montserrat below. At this time, following the Netherlands failure to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, two Dutch ad-agency partners, Johan Kramer and Matthijs de Jongh, not having their home team to cheer on, pondered who the worst team in the world might be. With Bhutan and Montserrat so close to each other at the bottom of the FIFA rankings, they set out to arrange a match between the two nations. Montserrat, with their only pitch having been destroyed by one of the island nation's seven active volcanoes, agreed to the match and travelled to Bhutan for the game, held at Changlimithang a few hours before the 2002 FIFA World Cup final, a match authorised by FIFA. The game started strongly for Montserrat and Bhutan struggled to contain them during early exchanges. However, initial nerves were settled after five minutes when Wangay Dorji headed a goal to give Bhutan the lead. This gave them the momentum to press on, but their finishing was lax and they were unable to convert the chances they created. Montserrat were able to keep Bhutan at bay for the rest of the half and the game remained at 1–0 until well past the hour mark when English referee Steve Bennett awarded Bhutan a freekick. Dorji stepped up and scored his second of the game. The momentum remained with Bhutan and veteran striker Dinesh Chhetri scored a third before Dorji took full advantage of a tiring Montserratian team to complete his hat-trick and seal a 4–0 victory, Bhutan's first victory on the international stage against any opposition, indeed their first-ever result of any kind and the first time they had ever kept a clean sheet.
Slow regression (2003–present)
However, despite this memorable victory, Bhutan was unable to carry this form forward into competitive matches. Although the Bhutan Football Federation now received substantial payments as a member of FIFA, there was still very little money in the game for players, even those who played for the national team. Players who were unemployed outside football had to exist on a stipend from the Federation of only Nu 3–5,500 per month and there were no internationally certified coaches in the country at all, only amateurs and school teachers. It is no surprise then that Bhutan was defeated in all three games in the 2003 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup, losing 6–0 to the Maldives, 2–0 to Nepal and 3–0 to hosts Bangladesh, returning home bottom of their group without scoring a single goal. They took advantage though in their next set of matches as they hosted Group F of the preliminary qualifying round for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup. Drawn with Guam and Mongolia, two teams ranked much closer to them than the majority of their previous opposition, they began their campaign with a 6–0 victory over Guam (a result that as of 2016 is still their record victory) and followed it up with a 0–0 draw against Mongolia to top their group and progress to the qualifying round proper. The victory over Guam was their biggest ever margin of victory to date and the two games undefeated in this group represents Bhutan's best run of form to date as of 2014. In the next stage though they were drawn against much stronger opposition in the shape of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Yemen. Faced with this increase in quality, Bhutan were outclassed in all six of their qualifying games, losing all of them and again failing to score a single goal in the process.
Their losing run continued into the 2005 South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup, where yet again they were to return home winless, losing 3–0 to Bangladesh and India respectively and 3–1 to Nepal, Bikash Pradhan scoring their only goal of the tournament, a consolation goal with Nepal already 3–0 up in what was a dead rubber for both sides.
From 2006 to 2009 saw something of an improvement in results for Bhutan. Entering the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup, they suffered narrow defeats to Nepal, 2–0 and Sri Lanka 1–0, before holding Brunei to a 0–0 draw. Although they failed to score and did not progress to the main competition, the draw against Brunei was their first positive result of any kind for nearly three years following a similar 0–0 draw with Mongolia and ended an eleven match losing streak. They did not play any international matches for the next two years, appearing again on the continental stage in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup. Their performance was similar to the previous Challenge Cup, opening with a 3–1 loss to Tajikistan, Passang Tshering scoring for Bhutan after sixty-nine minutes, only for the Tajiks to seal the victory from the penalty spot in the dying minutes through Numonjon Hakimov. Bhutan achieved a better result in the next game, drawing 1–1 with Brunei. Nawang Dendhup gave Bhutan the initial advantage, a lead which they held until the seventy-sixth minute when Khayrun Bin Salleh equalized. Although a 3–0 loss to the Philippines in their final group game confirmed that again Bhutan would not be progressing to the competition proper. However, the two goals they scored and the draw achieved, meant that they finished in third place in the group above Brunei.
Team image
Colours
Bhutan's current home colours are orange shirts with yellow trim and a yellow dragon motif, orange shorts and orange socks. Their away colours is predominantly white with orange trim on the shirt and shorts and an orange dragon motif. Both their home and away colours are so closely aligned to the national colours and pattern of the Flag of Bhutan that they essentially mirror it. The current kit manufacturer of the national teams is Hummel.
There are three main themes contained within Bhutan's home colours, all of which have wider symbolism within the nation as outlined in the Constitution of Bhutan. Firstly, the use of orange signifies Mahayana Buddhist spiritual tradition, particularly the Drukpa Kagyu and Nyingma schools. Secondly, the use of yellow in the trim and also as the colour of the dragon motif signifies civil tradition and temporal authority as embodied in the Druk Gyalpo, the Dragon King of Bhutan, whose royal garb traditionally includes a yellow kabney (scarf). Finally, the dragon motif employed is the Druk (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་) the "Thunder Dragon" of Bhutanese mythology and a Bhutanese national symbol, though the dragon depicted in the team's colours does not hold the jewels representing wealth that are found on the national flag, though the similar snarling mouth of the dragon symbolizes the Bhutanese deities' commitment to the defense of Bhutan.
The orange theme and that of the dragon motif noted above are carried over into the away colours. Additionally, the predominant white theme mirrors the colour of the dragon on the national flag which signifies the purity of inner thoughts and deeds that unite all the ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples of Bhutan.
Home
Away
Logo
The logo of the national team is identical to that used for its governing body, the Bhutan Football Federation. It consists of a football surrounded by two concentric circles, one yellow, one orange, representing the Dragon King of Bhutan and the Buddhist tradition in the country, overlaid on a Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis horridula), the national flower of Bhutan. Below this is a wish-fulfilling jewel, similar to that located at the top of the official Emblem of Bhutan.
Home stadium
Changlimithang Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan, which serves as the national stadium. The stadium can holds a capacity of 15,000. It is predominantly used for football matches and is the home of both the Bhutan national football team and a number of Thimphu-based football clubs who play in both the Bhutan Premier League. In addition to football, the stadium also regularly plays host to major archery tournaments, the national sport of Bhutan. The stadium was initially constructed in 1974 for the coronation of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, but was completely refurbished in 2007 in advance of the coronation of the fifth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Floodlights were added to the football pitch in 2009, and an artificial pitch was laid in 2012 to coincide with the start of the first season of the National League. Unusually for a national stadium, and as a result of the conversion of the playing surface to artificial turf, the football field at Changlimithang is available for public hire and is extremely popular with people in Thimphu.
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
Win
Draw
Loss
Fixture
Technical staff
As of August 2026
Coaching history
As of June 2026
1 Coached in an interim capacity.
Players
The following players were named in the squad for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round match against Yemen on 25 March 2025.
Caps and goals updated as of 8 September 2024
Recent call-ups
The following players have also been called up to the Bangladesh squad within the last twelve months.
Player records
As of 14 October 2025
Players in bold are still active with Bhutan.
Competitive record
AFC Asian Cup
*: 2019 qualification campaign also included qualifying matches from the Asian section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. In 2014, a proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup with those of the AFC Asian Cup was ratified by the AFC Competitions Committee. The new qualification structure took place in three stages, with the first two merging with the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification.
SAFF Championship
*Denotes draws includes knockout matches decided on penalty kicks. Red border indicates that the tournament was hosted on home soil. Gold, silver, bronze backgrounds indicates 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. Bold text indicates best finish in tournament.
Head-to-head record
Last match updated: Sri Lanka on 8 June 2026.
More wins
Wins equal losses
More losses
Unofficial matches
NB: Unofficial matches includes ANFA Cup matches against teams other than the official Nepal national team, four friendly matches against Tibet and Bangladesh and two charity matches against Buriram United.
*: Includes unofficial matches in the 1986 ANFA Cup against Hong Kong Gurkhas and Nepal Youth which sources indicate were drawn but for which no score is available. The results are included here statistically as 0–0 for the purpose of completeness.
Rankings
FIFA
Prior to the victories over Sri Lanka, their highest FIFA ranking achieved was 187th, which they last reached in December 2008 following their semi-final performance in the 2008 SAFF Championship. From that high point, they slipped down the rankings to last place in December 2012 to join San Marino and the Turks and Caicos Islands in 207th. They fell to 208th place following the admission to FIFA of South Sudan in July 2014, and dropped to 209th as the only team without ranking points following San Marino's draw with Estonia. However, Bhutan rose to 163rd on the FIFA rankings after two victories over Sri Lanka in World Cup qualifying, achieving their highest ranking ever in April 2015. They then rose to 156th in June 2015. However, following their performance in the second round of world cup qualifying in which they have failed to win a game, they slipped back to 193rd as of February, but have since risen to 185th as of November 2017.
Elo ratings
The team is also ranked extremely low on the all time Elo ratings at 227th out of 234 as of December 2017. There is one FIFA affiliated team ranked below them, American Samoa. Their initial comparatively high position in the 1980s was more to do with the number of nations competing globally at the time than their specific performances. Since they have started competing with a degree of regularity on the continental scene, Bhutan have always hovered at or near the bottom of the ratings. Their high point in the 21st century was 218th as a result of their performance at the 2008 SAFF Championship.
Honours
Friendly
The Other Final (1): 2002
Awards
SAFF Championship Fair Play Award (2): 2005, 2018