Early years Mauritius played its first competitive international game in 1947 against
Réunion, which they won 2–1. For the next twenty years, they would only play Réunion and
Madagascar (probably due to the proximity of the three islands to each other) in friendlies and the
Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire, which existed from 1947 to 1963. Mauritius won the competition ten times over that time period, were runners-up twice, and came in third once.
1960s–1990s Starting in 1967, Mauritius began competing against other countries, playing friendlies and entering in such competitions as the
Africa Cup of Nations and the
FIFA World Cup qualifiers, though they haven't found much success. While they have never qualified for the
World Cup finals, they have qualified once for the Africa Cup of Nations, in
1974, however, they were eliminated in the group stages. Mauritius did manage to win the resurrected
Indian Ocean Games in
1985. In 1999, after deadly riots caused by supporters of Scouts Club (renamed as
Port Louis Sporting Club) in the championship deciding game, which gave Fire Brigade a 1–0 win, all domestic football was suspended for 18 months, and only the national team was allowed to play. This is regarded as the point at which Mauritian football, both on the domestic and international stage, started on a downward slope.
2000s–present made his debut for Mauritius in 2011 made his debut for Mauritius in 2018 Throughout the new millennium, the national team's performances progressively declined. From a high of the 116th place in the
FIFA rankings in 2000, they tumbled down to an all-time low of the 195th place in the summer of 2011. A peak was reached in 2003, when Mauritius convincingly won the
2003 Indian Ocean Island Games, on home soil, under head coach
Akbar Patel. They followed up with a 3-1 home win over
Uganda in the
2006 FIFA World Cup Qualification (CAF) first round in November 2003, although Uganda progressed on aggregate. Mauritius then reached the quarterfinals of the
2004 COSAFA Cup, beating
South Africa 2–0 in January 2004. Mauritius eventually lost out 3–1 to the tournament's favorites
Zambia. In the next few years, the team would go through a slump in performance, suffering their biggest defeats in the process and recording few official wins. Mauritius have also cycled through many head coaches, especially since the new millennium, but none have had true success. During the
2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers,
Les Dodos achieved their best results in a decade, defeating both
Mozambique and
Rwanda. However, they were unable to build on these wins, losing to
Comoros and then
São Tomé and Príncipe in the preliminary round of the next two editions. In the
2023 AFCoN qualifiers, Mauritius faced São Tomé again in the preliminary round and lost 1–0 in the first leg and drew 3–3 at home, failing to progress. Following the result, CAF ruled that one of the São Tomé players was not eligible, awarding Mauritius a 3–0 victory and sending them into the group stages for the first time since 2017. However, this decision was reversed, following an appeal by São Tomé. In 2023, Mauritius recorded impressive wins vs Kenya (1-0), who were in the FIFA rankings' top 100, and Angola (1-0; 0-0). However, in the
2025 AFCoN qualifiers, Mauritius lost to Chad in the preliminary round, marking four consecutive unsuccessful attempts to reach the group stage of the qualification round. ==Team image==