Myanmar U17

Reportedly introduced during the British colonial era by James George Scott, a British colonial administrator, football has been the most popular sport in the country. The Burma Football Federation was founded in 1947, a year before the country's independence from the United Kingdom. The BFF joined FIFA in 1948, and the Asian Football Confederation in 1954.

The federation launched the first States and Divisions Football Championship in 1952. The competition became a highly popular avenue for attracting national talent. Burma became a top Asian football power, along Iran and South Korea, winning two Asian Games tournaments (1966, 1970) and then unprecedented five South East Asian Games tournaments (1965–1973) as well as coming in second in the 1968 Asian Cup tournament. Burma thoroughly dominated the U-19/U-20 Asian Cup, reaching the finals nine times and winning the tournament seven times, during a ten-year span between 1961 and 1970.

Starting from the mid-1970s, the country's football success—a source of much national pride—also declined rapidly, along with the country's precipitous economic decline. (Aside from a few regional tournament wins, the Burmese men's national team has not won any major football competition since 1973.) The federation did (or could do) little to promote development of football, nor nurture the talent through professional league competitions. Until 1996, the country's main football league consisted of Yangon-based clubs run by government ministries and known for corruption. Although private football clubs were allowed to join the Myanmar Premier League in 1996, the league still did not attract much following by Burmese public. In December 2008, the MFF announced the formation a new national professional league, the Myanmar National League, which will start its first full season in 2010.

In accordance with FIFA regulations, the MFF reportedly became an independent organization, free of government control, in March 2009.