Merdeka Tournament
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Merdeka Tournament (Malay: Pestabola Merdeka) is an international friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. It is mainly played at Independence Stadium, in Kuala Lumpur. "Merdeka" is the Malay word (borrowed from Sanskrit) for independence or freedom. As of 2024, the tournament has been held 43 times, though 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.
History
The Merdeka Tournament is Asia`s oldest football tournament which invited football playing nations to compete since 1957. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup.
The first edition of the tournament was held in August and September 1957 with British Hong Kong emerging inaugural champions. 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.
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' São 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.
List of finals
Below are the list of Merdeka Football Tournament finals since 1957.
Records and statistics
Performance by nations
Below are the records of national teams (including youth teams) since 1957.
| # | Team | Titles | Runners-up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malaysia | 13 | 8 | 20 |
| 2 | South Korea | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| 3 | Myanmar | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 4 | Indonesia | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Iraq | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Taiwan | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Vietnam | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 8 | Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Czechoslovakia | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 10 | Morocco | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Uzbekistan | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Tajikistan | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 14 | India | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Japan | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 16 | Pakistan | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kuwait | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Ghana | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Algeria XI | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| China Olympic Team | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Lebanon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Performance by state or club teams
Below are the records of state or clubteams since 1957.
| # | Team | Titles | Runners-up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazil Santa Catarina XI | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Argentina Buenos Aires XI | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| West Germany Hamburger SV | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Austria SK Admira Wacker | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | Brazil São Paulo XI | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Brazil Minas Gerais XI | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Brazil America Rio de Janeiro | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Austria Tirol Innsbruck | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Hungary Budapesti Vasas | 0 | 1 | 1 |
All-time top scorers
| # | Player | Team | Matches | Goals | Ratio | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mokhtar Dahari | Malaysia Malaysia | 50 | 36 | 0.72 | |
| 2 | Kunishige Kamamoto | Japan Japan | 18 | 22 | 1.22 | |
| 3 | Abdul Kadir | Indonesia Indonesia | 36 | 22 | 0.61 | |
| 4 | Cha Bum-kun | South Korea South Korea | 34 | 21 | 0.62 | |
| 5 | Abdul Ghani Minhat | Malaysia Malaysia | 32 | 19 | 0.60 |