Nepal women's national football team

History

Formation

Nepal formed a women's national team in the mid-1980s and debuted in the 1986 AFC Women's Championship. During that tournament, Nepal played their first official match against Hong Kong (14 December 1986), which they lost 1–0. The Nepal women's side also participated in the final three phases of the Asian Cup in 1986, 1989 and 1999, never going beyond the group stages. Nepal proved to be in a difficult group with former champions Thailand, alongside Indonesia and Hong Kong, two relatively strong teams. As a result, Nepal had lost all three matches, two of them jarringly, while the match against Hong Kong proved to be a steady profit. In 1989 Nepal played again in the championship, against the same opponents, except that Thailand was substituted against Japan. This resulted in meagre points for Nepal, who lost every game by a wide margin, the smallest being a 0–3 defeat against Hong Kong.

Nepal's FIFA First Vice President was Kamal Thapa. Nepal's first woman captain was Rama Singh. When the Nepali women's football team was created, Kamal Thapa was the president of the All Nepal Football Association. Singh, who represented the Bagmati team, started playing in 1985. The national team's second captain was Kamala Hirachan who also represented the Gandaki team and the third women's team captain was Meera Chaudhary who represented the Naryani team. Singh later became the first newsreader in Nepali television history, and Chaudhary has held a rank of DSP in Nepal police. The first female international goal scorer of Nepal is Pema Dolma Lama, who scored a goal against Uzbekistan at the 1999 AFC Women's Championship held in Philippines.

Crisis years

As a result of the democracy uprising in 1990, there was an eight-year period without a women's national team. This negatively affected player recruitment, but nevertheless Nepal soon returned to international football during the Women's Asian Cup in 1999. Despite their return, the results were about the same as before the eight-year hiatus. The championship ended in the group stage with Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and the Philippines, where Nepal lost all four games. Since then, Nepal has not appeared in the Women's Asian cup. Former men's national team technical director, Holger Obermann served as the technical advisor for the Chelis during their 1999 campaign.

However, this did not mean that Nepal had not played football since 1999. The Mangladevi League, roughly a month-long women's football tourney, was set up trying to bring in women football players across the country. It was played in early 2000, in a league-cum-knockout format. It was an initiative taken by a single person, but was sadly discontinued after a year.

Nepal had a long period without matches, but they impressed many in the South Asian Games in 2010, where they reached the final after beating several opponents by a wide margin. in. In the final, they lost narrowly 1–3 against the heavy favorite India. This gave the national team much-needed recognition. The 11th South Asian Games were also the first to host a women's football event as well. In the opening match of the 2010 South Asian Games, Nepal's U-23 women's team faced hosts Bangladesh, where they won with a single goal. The second match against Sri Lanka proved to be more illustrious as victory came in the form of 8 goals while holding a clean sheet. However, the scoring spree was short-lived as the third group-stage match against India saw a heavy 0–5 loss. Nevertheless, Nepal had done enough to qualify for the second round (semi-finals) against Pakistan which they won with a resounding 7–0 scoreline. This meant that Nepal would face a difficult rematch against India in the final, although any result would ensure a medal at the very least for the Chelis. Despite finally ending the scoring drought against India, the game was lost 1–3. Despite putting on a valiant performance, the Chelis returned home with a silver medal which came to the delight of many supporters of Nepali football due to the rarity of the occasion.

Regeneration

The regeneration of women's football in Nepal was first realised when after the national leagues were reinstated in 2009. The women's national team prior to this hadn't played an international game for 5 years. Nevertheless, the Chelis began training for two upcoming major international tournaments in the following year. In 2010, Nepali women footballers returned with two runner-up trophies, one from the 11th South Asian Games, and the other from the SAFF Women's Football Championship. Despite limited training, resources and less attention compared to the men's team, the women's team performed exceedingly well. In the South Asian Games, they defeated Sri Lanka 8–0, and in SAFF they thrashed Afghanistan 13–0 and Pakistan 11–0. Striker Anu Lama was the star of SAFF, scoring three hat-tricks to be declared the best player of the tournament. However, the team was defeated 0–5 by India in the SAG final, but it was a much more closely fought match when they lost 0–1 to the same team in the SAFF final recently.

Following the team's 2010 regeneration, the women's side's FIFA ranking rose by 22 places.

Team image

Nicknames

The Nepal women's national football team has also been known as the "Nepali Chelis".

Home stadium

Main article: Dasarath Rangasala Stadium

The team's home stadium is the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium, a multi-purpose stadium in central Kathmandu. It is shared with the Nepal men's national football team. Holding 25,000 spectators, of which 5,000 seated, the Dasarath Rangasala is the biggest stadium in Nepal. It is named after Dashrath Chand, one of Nepal's martyrs. Prior to the 2013 SAFF Championship in Nepal, the Dasarath Rangasala underwent heavy renovation that saw several improvements such as the expansion of seats from 20,000 to 25,000.

FIFA World Ranking

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled. ;Legend

2025

• Rana Magar
• Bhandari
• May Htet Lu
• Myat Noe Khin Win Theingi Tun
• Chatchawan
• Jiraporn
• Basnet
• Bhandari
• Limbu
• Ghising
• K.C.
• Inthaphone
• G. Rana
• Bhandari
• Thokar
• Poudel
• P. Rana
• Khabibullaeva
• Karachik
• Shoyimova
• Bhandari
• Rana
• Shoyimova
• Zoirova
• Khikmatova
• Aminjonova
• Bhandari
• Rana
• S. Magar
• A. Magar
• Didar
• Ghanbari
• Behesht
• Shirvoikar
• Bhandari
• Priyadharshini
• Santosh
• Oraon
• S. Magar
• Ghising
• Basnet
• Thokar
• Gea
• Aulia
• Vivi
• Huang Ke-Sin

2026

Coaching staff

As of October 2025

Coaching history

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Iran and India in October 2025. Nepal played Iran on 24 October and India on 27 October in Shillong, India.

Recent call-ups

:The following footballers were part of a national selection in the past twelve months, but are not part of the current squad.

INJ Withdrew due to injury

PRE Preliminary squad / standby

RET Retired from the national team

SUS Serving suspension

WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Records

Competitive record

FIFA Women's World Cup

Olympic Games

:*Denotes draws includes knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

AFC Women's Asian Cup

:*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Asian Games

:*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

SAFF Women's Championship

:*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

South Asian Games

:*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

WAFF Women's Championship

:*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Other tournaments

Head-to-head record

Honours

Regional

• SAFF Women's Championship
  • Runners-up (6): 2010, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022, 2024
• SAG Games
  • Runners-up (3): 2010, 2016, 2019
• WAFF Women's Championship
  • Runners-up (1): 2024

References

References

1. "NFH – Archived News".
2. "Off-side: In support of the Nepali women footballers".
3. Richardson, Andy. (5 March 2009). "Nepali football – Sportsworld". Al-Jazeera Sportsworld.
4. "FIFA Rankings Nepal Women's National Team".
5. "In Pictures: Renovation of Dasarath Rangasala on a war footing".
6. "FIFA NEPAL WOMEN'S RANKING". [[FIFA]].
7. "Australian national Phillips named ANFA technical director".
8. Republica. "Gary Phillips is new head coach of Women's National Football Team".
9. (24 January 2024). "Rajendra Tamang Appointed Head Coach Of Women's National Football Team".
10. "Coach Tamang to lead Nepali women in Four Nations Cup".
11. "Final squad for Iran and India friendlies announced".