Founded in 1959, the association was inactive between 1960 and 1998 when the team did not feature in any international fixtures. TheMongolian Football Federation is a member of theAsian Football Confederation and theEast Asian Football Federation. The team has never participated in the FIFA World Cup, and the only major international tournaments the team has taken part in are the 1998 Asian Games and2016 AFC Solidarity Cup, not progressing past the group stage in either competition.
Mongolia's first international fixture was a 12–0 loss toJapan during a match inManchukuo in 1942. Between 1960 and 1998, the Mongolia team played no international matches before being accepted as a FIFA member in 1998.[4] Mongolia's first competitive matches were in the1998 Asian Games qualifiers where they were heavily defeated byKuwait 11–0, and byUzbekistan 15–0.
They enteredqualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but lost their opening five matches before drawing 2–2 withBangladesh, securing a single point. In the2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Mongolia was drawn against theMaldives and though they remained competitive after the first leg, only losing 1–0 at home, they were crushed in the second leg inMalé 12–0 and eliminated. In the first round of the2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Mongolia was beaten 9–2 on aggregate byNorth Korea, and four years later in the2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Mongolia lost toMyanmar 2–1. Mongolia then lost in the2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers toTimor-Leste; however, they were later awarded two 3–0 victories as Timor-Leste had fielded numerous ineligible players. This came after the second round matches had been played; therefore, Mongolia did not advance in the competition.[5]
According to the voting outcome at the AFC Congress held in January 2011, theMongolian Football Federation was suspended to conduct any activities at theEAFF until the EAFF Ordinary Congress of March 2014.[6] They were welcomed back to the federation at the 7th Ordinary Congress and 41st and 42nd Executive Committee Meeting of the EAFF.[7]
For Mongolia, their next tournament was the2016 AFC Solidarity Cup, a tournament for the confederation's lowest ranked teams who have limited opportunities to arrange friendly matches, in November 2016. The tournament would replace the defunctAFC Challenge Cup.[8] Being drawn in Group B alongsideSri Lanka,Macau, andLaos,[9] Mongolia finished third in the group with a loss to Laos in the final match-day ending their chances of qualifying through to the semi-finals.[10]
Mongolia then hosted their first international with the EAFF Annual Meeting advising that Mongolia would host the Round 1 of qualification for theEast Asian Football Championship[11] After comfortable wins in its first two matches, Mongolia needed only a single point againstGuam on the final matchday to secure a place in the second round of the tournament for the first time ever.[12] After a scoreless first half, Guam took the lead in the 89th minute. However, in the fourth minute of stoppage time aNorjmoo Tsedenbal strike rescued a point for Mongolia which was enough for the team to earn the top spot in the group and advance.[13] Mongolia's 9–0 result over the Northern Mariana Islands set the current team record for largest margin of victory[14]
Mongolia succeeded in qualifying past the first round for the first time in the2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers by beatingBrunei 3–2 over two legs.[15] In the second round, following a 14–0 defeat toJapan on 30 March 2021, they let head coachRastislav Božik go and hiredShuichi Mase as their new head coach. In their next game on 7 June, Mongolia managed to shockKyrgyzstan 1–0 for their first ever win against a Central Asian and a top-100 ranked opponent in a FIFA qualifier.[16] This win meant that the national team competed in2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifying in the third-round where they only would get the one win against Yemen. In March 2023, Mongolia recorded its highest-ever FIFA ranking of 183rd.
The Mongolian national team is often nicknamed the Blue Wolves. The blue wolf is a symbol of Turkic and Mongolian people, and originates from the Mongolian legend of the blue wolf. The team has also been known as the "Shegshee", which translates as "national team" in Mongolian.[18]
Currently, the Mongolian national football team uses an all-white uniform as their first colours, and a blue uniform as their second colours. In August 2021 it was announced that Mongolian sportswear companyTG Sport had signed a two-year deal with theMongolian Football Federation to provide kits for all Mongoliannational teams.[19]
Kelme is currently the official jerseys sponsor for the team from 2023
Mongolia plays their home matches at theMFF Football Centre, a 5,000 capacity stadium inUlaanbaatar. The stadium boasts an artificial playing surface.[20]
^Grimm, Justin (7 September 2018)."Who is Bajinnyam Batbold?". Mongolian Football Central.Archived from the original on 8 September 2018. Retrieved7 September 2018.