| Merdeka Football Tournament | |
| Organiser: | FAM |
| Region: | International |
| Number Of Teams: | Varied (3 in 2023) |
| Current Champions: | (1st title) |
| Most Successful Team: | (10 titles) |
Merdeka Tournament is an international friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. It is mainly played at Independence Stadium, Kuala Lumpur.[1] The competition bears the Malay word for independence. The Merdeka Tournament was once regarded as the 'Grand Old Lady of Asia' where top teams from football playing nations would love to be invited.[2] As of 2023, the tournament has been held 42 times, and with decreasing frequency in recent decades. The Merdeka Tournament is the oldest invitational football tournament in Asia and the matches in the tournament are considered International "A" matches (Friendly match) by FIFA.[3]
The Merdeka Tournament is Asia`s oldest football tournament which invited football playing nations to compete since 1957.[4] [5] [6] [7] The tournament also was once called the ‘Mini Asia Cup’ around the 1960s to 1980s, which was founded by the former AFC President, Tunku Abdul Rahman.[8] [9] At that time, the FIFA president, Sir Stanley Rous, was just as surprised that newly independent Asian country could successfully organize a football tournament where all expenses of the visiting teams were fully borne by the host.[10] The Merdeka Tournament proved to be a huge success, inspiring similar tournaments like the Jakarta Anniversary Tournament in Indonesia, the King's Cup in Thailand and the President's Cup in South Korea.[11] While the tournament had been held annually from 1957 to 1988, it has been held only ten times from 1989 to 2023. During the late 1950s to early 1980s, it was a prestigious tournament among Asian nations because the participants sent their full senior players.[12] After the 1980s, interest in the cup waned from both football fans and football teams, because many Asian nations focused more on the qualification phases in FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup.[13]
The first edition of the tournament was held in August and September 1957 with Hong Kong emerging inaugural champions.[14] However, from then on it was purely dominated by Malaysia, South Korea, Myanmar, Indonesia and a host of other countries, including South American and European clubs.[15]
Malaysia/Malaya exclusively lifted the trophy ten times, emerged runners-up on eight occasions, and in addition shared the winner’s rostrum twice with South Korea (1960 and 1979), while South Korean sides have won it seven times.
Indonesia, Taiwan and Myanmar hold multi-winning accolades. The other champions were Morocco (1980), New Zealand (2000), Uzbekistan (2001), Czechoslovakia Olympic (1987) and Austria’s with their SK Admira Wacker (1991), German Hamburger SV (1988), Argentinian Buenos Aires XI (1983) and Brazilian Santa Catarina XI (1982).
Brazilian states' Sao Paulo XI, Minas Gerais XI, and America FC Rio de Janeiro finished runners-up, as have Japan and India.
The 2024 Merdeka Tournament would be held in September 2024. Three countries will be invited to the tournament, from Kim Pan-gon's decision. The tournament uses the same format as the 2023 edition, where higher-ranked teams received a bye in the semi-final, and only waiting in the finals. [16]
Below are the list of Merdeka Football Tournament finals since 1957.[17] [18]
| Runners-up | |||||
| 1 | 1957 |  Hong Kong League XI | Round-robin | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1958 | Round-robin | Hong Kong League XI | ||
| 3 | 1959 | Round-robin | |||
| 4 | 1960 | and | 0–0 | — | |
| 5 | 1961 | 2–1 | |||
| 6 | 1962 | 2–1 | |||
| 7 | 1963 | Round-robin | |||
| 8 | 1964 | 1–0 | |||
| 9 | 1965 | and | 1–1 | — | |
| 10 | 1966 | 1–0 | |||
| 11 | 1967 | and | 0–0 | — | |
| 12 | 1968 | 3–0 | |||
| 13 | 1969 | 3–2 | |||
| 14 | 1970 | 1–0 | |||
| 15 | 1971 | 1–0 | |||
| 16 | 1972 | 2–1 | |||
| 17 | 1973 | 3–1 | |||
| 18 | 1974 | 1–0 | South Korea B | ||
| 19 | 1975 | 1–0 | |||
| 20 | 1976 | 2–0 | |||
| 21 | 1977 | 1–0 | |||
| 22 | 1978 | 2–0 | |||
| 23 | 1979 | and South Korea B | 0–0 | — | |
| 24 | 1980 | 2–1 | |||
| 25 | 1981 | 1–0 |  Sao Paulo XI | ||
| 26 | 1982 | Santa Catarina XI | 3–0 | ||
| 27 | 1983 |  Buenos Aires XI | 2–1 | ||
| 28 | 1984 | South Korea B | 2–0 | Minas Gerais XI | |
| 29 | 1985 | South Korea B | 7–4 | America FC Rio de Janeiro | |
| 30 | 1986 | 3–0 | |||
| 31 | 1987 | 3–2 | |||
| 32 | 1988 | Hamburger SV | 1–0 |  FC Tirol Innsbruck | |
| 33 | 1991 | SK Admira Wacker | 3–0 | ||
| 34 | 1993 | 3–1 | South Korea B | ||
| 35 | 1995 | 2–0 |  Budapesti Vasas SC | ||
| 36 | 2000 | 2–0 | |||
| 37 | 2001 | 2–1 | |||
| 38 | 2006 | 2–1 | |||
| 39 | 2007 | 3–1 | |||
| 40 | 2008 | 0–0 (6–5) | |||
| 41 | 2013 | 2–0 | |||
| 42 | 2023 | 2–0 | |||
| 43 | 2024 | TBD | |||
Below are the records of national teams (including youth teams) since 1957.
| Runners-up | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | 8 | 20 | |
| 2 | 11 | 3 | 14 | |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Hong Kong League XI | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
Below are the records of state or clubteams since 1957.
| Runners-up | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Catarina XI | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Buenos Aires XI | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Hamburger SV | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| SK Admira Wacker | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Sao Paulo XI | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Minas Gerais XI | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| America FC Rio de Janeiro | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| FC Tirol Innsbruck | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Budapesti Vasas SC | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Player | Team | Matches | Goals | Ratio | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mokhtar Dahari |  Malaysia | 50 | 36 | 0.72 | [19] | |
| 2 | Kunishige Kamamoto |  Japan | 18 | 22 | 1.22 | [20] | |
| 3 | Abdul Kadir |  Indonesia | 36 | 22 | 0.61 | [21] | |
| 4 | Cha Bum-kun |  South Korea | 34 | 21 | 0.62 | [22] | |
| 5 | Abdul Ghani Minhat | Malaysia | 32 | 19 | 0.60 | [23] |
| 1987 | Václav Daněk | 6 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Peter Pacult | FC Tirol Innsbruck | 5 | |
| 1991 | Ernst Ogris | SK Admira Wacker | 4 | |
| 1993 | Petar Aleksandrov | FC Aarau | 4 | |
| 1995 | Lee Woo-young | 3 | ||
| 2000 | Chris Killen | 3 | ||
| 2001 | Bakhtiyor Hamidullaev Husain Ali | 3 | ||
| 2006 | Indra Putra Mahayuddin | 3 | ||
| 2007 | Safee Sali | 3 | ||
| 2008 | Safee Sali (2) | 5 | ||
| 2013 | Rozaimi Rahman | 3 | ||
| 2023 | 8 players | 1 |
Here are some prominent footballers, who participated in this competition.
Mokhtar Dahari Soh Chin Ann Abdul Ghani Minhat Chow Chee Keong
P. K. Banerjee Chuni Goswami Inder Singh Sunil Chhetri Kim Jae-han Cha Bum-kun Park Sung-Hwa Lee Woon-jae Kunishige Kamamoto Yasuhiko Okudera Hiromi Hara Abdul Kadir Iswadi Idris
Suk Bahadur
Hussein Saeed
Abedi Pele
Ryan Nelsen