Sri Lanka made their continental level football debut in the 2016 Summer Olympic Qualifiers when they were soundly beaten 16-0 by Myanmar. In the next game they were defeated by India. In 2016 they participated in the South Asian Games but lost all of their matches in the football tournament. Sri Lanka participated in the 4th SAFF Women's Championship in 2016 but they failed to reach the semi finals after a shock defeat to Maldives which are ranked below them.