• Source: Merdeka Tournament

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, Kuala Lumpur. 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. 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.




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 FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup.
The first edition of the tournament was held in August and September 1957 with 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

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Below are the records of national teams (including youth teams) since 1957.




= Performance by state or club teams

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Below are the records of state or clubteams since 1957.




= All-time top scorers

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= Top scorers

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Notable players


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
Jakob Kjeldbjerg
Jacob Laursen
Suk Bahadur
Hussein Saeed
Abedi Pele
Ryan Nelsen
Kevin Keegan




Notes






References






External links

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Turnamen Merdeka
• Turnamen Merdeka 1971
• Yudo Hadianto
• Persaingan sepak bola Indonesia–Malaysia
• Soetjipto Soentoro
• Syed Ahmad Syed Abu Bakar
• Frisca Clarissa
• Ahmad Amiruddin (pemain sepak bola)
• Ronny Pasla
• Kejuaraan Eropa UEFA 2024
• Merdeka Tournament
• 2024 Merdeka Tournament
• 2023 Merdeka Tournament
• 2007 Merdeka Tournament
• 1962 Merdeka Tournament
• 1960 Merdeka Tournament
• 1957 Merdeka Tournament
• 2001 Merdeka Tournament
• 2013 Merdeka Tournament
• 2008 Merdeka Tournament