Football is a sport with a comparatively brief history in Bhutan, 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. It has only achieved significantly renewed popularity in the early 2000s, following the advent of satellite television broadcasting, with the national sport historically being archery. Consequently, the domestic game was 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. Football became the most popular sport in Bhutan.
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, Bhutan Premier League, was established in 2012 (as National League). 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.
The national team was 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 played irregularly, mainly competing in the SAFF Championship or the qualifying rounds of the AFC Challenge Cup. The 2018 FIFA World Cup was their first attempt at qualifying. They beat Sri Lanka in the first round 2–1 on aggregate and qualified for the second round, where they finished bottom of the group after losing all 8 games, including 15-0 and 12-0 defeats to Qatar and China respectively.
History
Beginnings In the same way that there is uncertainty around the manner in which football as a sport in general came to be, so there is equal uncertainty around how the game was ultimately brought to Bhutan. During the colonial period, 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 Europeans 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 out of 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 centres 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 neighbouring tea gardens. In 1968, a team nominally representing Bhutan, but essentially consisting of foreign players travelled 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 job was to play football. 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.
1980s Although the game has been played in Bhutan for over eighty years, Football as an organised, competitive sport came to Bhutan comparatively late in the global history of the game. The national men's team played their first match only in 1982 in the ANFA cup against Nepal, which was lost 3–1. Somewhat counter-intuitively, a formal national federation was only established after this, with the Bhutan Football Association being founded in 1983, though its name was quickly changed to the Bhutan Football Federation later that year.
Under the auspices of this organisation, and without any apparent organised competition, the national team competed unsuccessfully in two editions of the South Asian Games football tournament, being beaten in both their games each time without scoring a single goal.
The first recorded national championship was not held until 1986, when ten teams comprising a variety of schools, colleges and public departments competed in a single round-robin set of matches, with the Royal Bhutan Army winning the first national title. This competition did not help the national team prepare for the South Asian Games the following year, where again they were beaten in both games.
1990s The establishment of a formal football league appears to have done little for the popularity of the organised game in Bhutan however, as no records exist to indicate that any form of organised competition occurred between 1986 and 1996. After the initial season, the popularity of the game waned and was only revived in the mid-1990s by the monk Khyentse Norbu. However, during this time, the federation was admitted to the AFC in 1993.
Organised domestic football was finally re-established in 1996 and saw the emergence of the first dominating team in Bhutanese football as Druk Pol won the title, something they would go on to do for the next five years. The national team also returned to the international stage, competing in the South Asian Games for the first time in twelve years in 1997, but again the revival of domestic football did little to improve the country's performances as they lost all three games, scoring just a single goal.
Television was banned in Bhutan until 1999, but prior to this the royal administration granted special exemption to a number of venues, mainly those who already had a sporting association, to show broadcasts of the 1998 World Cup. These proved to be extremely popular, with people walking some distance to see the matches, their first exposure, not just to TV, but also to foreign football.
2000s The turn of the century saw the national team become affiliated to FIFA, and compete at a continental level for the first time, as they entered the AFC Asian Cup. This was arguably the lowest point to date in the national team's history, as they extended their losing run to fifteen games in all competitions and suffered a record loss to date, 20–0 against Kuwait. However, football was undeniably popular in the country despite this; The Cup, the first feature-length film from Bhutan, filmed in 2000, tells the tale of monks in the country who sneak out of their monastery to watch satellite broadcasts of the world cup, a story said to be based on fact and something which is echoed in real life nearly ten years later.
The following year saw the formal establishment of the national championship as the A-Division, with that season's competition being the first on record to be a genuine attempt at a nationwide competition, involving not just teams from Thimphu, but also teams from Paro, Samtse and Gomtu.
The national team also recorded their first ever win after twenty years of competition when they defeated Montserrat 4–0 at the national stadium, Changlimithang. This fixture between what were then the two lowest ranked teams in the world, known as The Other Final, was specially arranged by Dutch documentary film maker, Johan Kramer, to coincide with the 2002 World Cup Final. By this time the domestic championship, although essentially Thimphu-based, had expanded to a two-tiered pyramid consisting of nine teams each.
In 2003, the league system grew by a further tier to incorporate a C-Division as well. About 12 to 14 C division clubs were expected to participate. Based on the performance in the national league, the two best teams from C division are promoted to the B division. Likewise, two B division teams move up to A division. On the other hand, the weakest team in each division is demoted to a lower division, creating a genuine league system for the first time in the country. In addition to this, the national team enjoyed one of their most successful seasons, when they qualified top of their group for the 2004 Asian Cup, defeating Guam 6–0 and drawing 0–0 with Mongolia. The victory over Guam is their highest scoring victory to date and the two match unbeaten run their current best set of results.
In the next few years football in Bhutan stagnated. The domestic leagues quickly lost their participants from outside of Thimphu and Transport United took over Druk Pol's position as the dominant team in the country, winning four back-to-back titles. During this time, clubs in Bhutan began to compete in continental competition. Classified by the AFC as a developing footballing nation, the country gained a place in the inaugural President's Cup. With their four consecutive titles, Transport United were regular competitors between 2005 and 2009. However, they struggled to compete against superior opposition, winning only two games out of twelve in their four appearances, both of which were against the Pakistan Army in 2006 and 2007.
The national team played sporadically and with little success during the first half of the 2000s, a 0–0 draw against Brunei being their only positive result. They were however, to produce their best performance in any tournament to date in the 2008 SAFF Championship, coming second in their group and losing in the semi-finals against India 2–1 following a last minute goal in extra time.