Merdeka Tournament

Merdeka Football Tournament is an international friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day and 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 an invitation to the tournament.[2] As of 2023, it has been held 42 times, and decreasingly in recent decades. Matches in the Merdeka tournament are considered International "A" matches (Friendly match) by FIFA.[3]

Merdeka Football Tournament
Organising bodyFAM
Founded1957 (1957)
RegionInternational
Number of teamsVaried
(3 in 2023)
Current champions Tajikistan
(1st title)
Most successful team(s) Malaysia
(10 titles)
2023 Merdeka Tournament

History
The winner of the second season of Merdeka Cup in 1958, Malaya football team, five years before the merger to form Malaysia. Also in the picture is Tunku Abdul Rahman (centre), the first Prime Minister of Malaya, and at that time president of Football Association of Malaya & Asian Football Confederation.[4][5]

The Pestabola Merdeka is Asia`s oldest football tournament which invited football playing nations to compete since 1957.[6][7][8][9] The Merdeka 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.[10] While the tournament had been held annually from 1957 to 1988, it has been held only nine times from 1989 to 2013. During the late 1950s to early 1980s, it was a prestigious tournament among Asian nations because the participants sent their full senior players.[11] 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.[12][13]

The first edition of the Pestabola Merdeka 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.

List of finals
Special golden jubilee logo marks a 50th anniversary of tournament in 2007.

Below are the list of Pestabola Merdeka finals since 1957.[16][17]

Key
& Title was shared after match finished in a draw
* Match went to extra time
† Match decided by penalty shoot-out after full-time
Ed. Year Winners Score Runners-up
1 1957 Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI[note 1] RR  Indonesia
2 1958  Malaya RR Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI[note 1]
3 1959  Malaya RR  India
4 1960  Malaya
 South Korea		 0–0& —
5 1961  Indonesia 2–1  Malaya
6 1962  Indonesia 2–1  Pakistan
7 1963  Taiwan[note 1] RR  Japan
8 1964  Burma 1–0  India
9 1965  South Korea
 Taiwan[note 1]		 1–1& —
10 1966  South Vietnam 1–0  Burma
11 1967  South Korea[note 2]
 Burma		 0–0& —
12 1968  Malaysia 3–0  Burma
13 1969  Indonesia 3–2  Malaysia
14 1970  South Korea 1–0  Burma
15 1971  Burma 1–0  Indonesia
16 1972  South Korea 2–1  Malaysia
17 1973  Malaysia 3–1  Kuwait
18 1974  Malaysia 1–0  South Korea
19 1975  South Korea 1–0  Malaysia
20 1976  Malaysia 2–0  Japan
21 1977  South Korea 1–0  Iraq
22 1978  South Korea 2–0  Iraq
23 1979 South Korea South Korea B
 Malaysia		 0–0& —
24 1980  Morocco 2–1  Malaysia
25 1981  Iraq 1–0 Brazil Sao Paulo XI
26 1982 Brazil Santa Catarina XI 3–0  Ghana
27 1983 Argentina Buenos Aires XI 2–1  Algeria XI
28 1984 South Korea South Korea B 2–0 Brazil Minas Gerais XI
29 1985 South Korea South Korea B 7–4* Brazil America FC Rio de Janeiro
30 1986  Malaysia 3–0  Czechoslovakia XI
31 1987  Czechoslovakia Olympic 3–2  South Korea
32 1988 West Germany Hamburger SV 1–0 Austria FC Tirol Innsbruck
33 1991 Austria SK Admira Wacker 3–0  China Olympic Team
34 1993  Malaysia 3–1 South Korea B
35 1995  Iraq 2–0 Hungary Budapesti Vasas SC
36 2000  New Zealand 2–0  Malaysia
37 2001  Uzbekistan 2–1  Bosnia and Herzegovina
38 2006  Myanmar 2–1  Indonesia
39 2007  Malaysia U-23 3–1  Myanmar
40 2008  Vietnam U-22 0–0†[lower-alpha 1]  Malaysia
41 2013  Malaysia U-23 2–0  Myanmar U-23
42 2023  Tajikistan 2–0  Malaysia

Records and statistics

Performance by teams

Below are the record of teams in Pestabola Merdeka competitions (1957–present).

# Team 1st place, gold medalist(s) Titles 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up Total
1  Malaysia1 10[lower-alpha 2] 8 18
2  South Korea 8[lower-alpha 3] 2 10
3  Myanmar2 4[lower-alpha 4] 4 8
4  Indonesia 3 3 6
5 South Korea South Korea B3 3[lower-alpha 5] 1 4
6  Iraq 2 2 4
7  Taiwan[note 1] 2[lower-alpha 6] 0 2
 Malaysia U-23 2 0 2
8 Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI[note 1] 1 1 2
9  Vietnam4 1 0 1
 Morocco 1 0 1
Brazil Santa Catarina XI 1 0 1
Argentina Buenos Aires XI 1 0 1
 Czechoslovakia Olympic 1 0 1
West Germany Hamburger SV 1 0 1
Austria SK Admira Wacker 1 0 1
 New Zealand 1 0 1
 Uzbekistan 1 0 1
 Vietnam U-22 1 0 1
 Tajikistan 1 0 1
10  India 0 2 2
 Japan 0 2 2
11  Pakistan 0 1 1
 Kuwait 0 1 1
Brazil Sao Paulo XI 0 1 1
 Ghana 0 1 1
 Algeria XI 0 1 1
Brazil Minas Gerais XI 0 1 1
Brazil America FC Rio de Janeiro 0 1 1
 Czechoslovakia XI 0 1 1
Austria FC Tirol Innsbruck 0 1 1
 China Olympic Team 0 1 1
Hungary Budapesti Vasas SC 0 1 1
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0 1 1
 Myanmar U-23 0 1 1
1 includes results representing  Malaya
2 includes results representing  Burma
3 includes results representing  South Korea U-23
4 includes results representing  South Vietnam

All-time top scorers
# Player Team Matches Goals Ratio Ref.
1 Mokhtar Dahari Malaysia Malaysia 50 36 0.72 [18]
2 Kunishige Kamamoto Japan Japan 18 22 1.22 [19]
3 Abdul Kadir Indonesia Indonesia 36 22 0.61 [20]
4 Cha Bum-kun South Korea South Korea 34 21 0.62 [21]
5 Abdul Ghani Minhat Malaysia Malaysia 32 19 0.60 [22]

Top scorers
Year Player Team Goals
1987 Václav Daněk  Czechoslovakia Olympic 6
1988 Peter Pacult Austria FC Tirol Innsbruck 5
1991 Ernst Ogris Austria SK Admira Wacker 4
1993 Petar Aleksandrov Switzerland FC Aarau 4
1995 Lee Woo-young  South Korea U-23 3
2000 Chris Killen  New Zealand 3
2001 Bakhtiyor Hamidullaev
Husain Ali		  Uzbekistan
 Bahrain		 3
2006 Indra Putra Mahayuddin  Malaysia 3
2007 Safee Sali  Malaysia U-23 3
2008 Safee Sali (2)  Malaysia 5
2013 Rozaimi Rahman  Malaysia 3

Notable players

Here are some prominent footballers, who participated in this competition.

Notes
  1. Hong Kong sent its team that consisted of players that represented Republic of China (Taiwan) or Hong Kong from 1957 to 1961. From 1963 to 1968 here, the team officially represented Republic of China (Taiwan) yet was Hong Kong-based Republic of China international footballers; Hong Kong's national team also formally joined since 1965 as well as Taiwan's.
  2. Represented by Yangzee FC
  1. Vietnam U-22 won the match 6–5 on penalties.
  2. Includes two shared titles.
  3. Includes three shared titles.
  4. Include one shared title.
  5. Include one shared title.
  6. Include one shared title.

References
  1. "Stadium Merdeka soul of the nation". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  2. "Bring back Grand Old Lady of Asia". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  3. "Diiktiraf perlawanan kelas A, ini 5 sebab Pesta Bola Merdeka patut dihidupkan semula" [Recognized as a class "A" match, these are 5 reasons why the Pestabola Merdeka should be revived]. Majoriti.com. 20 September 2022. Archived from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. "ASIAN ICONS: TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PUTRA AL HAJ". AFC at Wayback Machine. 5 August 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  5. "OCM Sports Museum & Hall of Fame: Tunku Abdul Rahman". OCM at Wayback Machine. 12 April 2010. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  6. Ajitpal Singh (7 September 2013). "Glory beckons Malaysia". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  7. Ted Gim (2 September 2008). ""Hari Merdeka" Observed in Seoul". The Seoul Times. malaysia.or.kr. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  8. "Merdeka Cup To 'Restart' Again! India May Feature, Feels AIFF Chief". MENAFN. 22 October 2022. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  9. Asiaweek. Asiaweek Limited. 1990.
  10. "Piala FAM, Pestabola Merdeka bakal kembali" [FAM Cup, Pestabola Merdeka will return] (in Malay). Bebas News. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  11. Eric Samuel (31 August 2017). "Halcyon days of Malaysian football". The Star. Archived from the original on 10 June 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  12. Sulaiman Ismail (25 December 2018). "Pestabola Merdeka Akan Dianjurkan Mengikut Kalendar FIFA" [Pestabola Merdeka Will Be Organized According to the FIFA Calendar]. Semuanya Bola (in Malay). Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  13. IANS (22 October 2022). "Kalyan Chaubey, AIFF President, Says 'Merdeka Cup to Restart, India May Feature' After Meeting FA Malaysia President". Latestly. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  14. T. Avineshwaran (13 May 2004). "Sporting landmarks through the years". The Star. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  15. "Happy 64th Independence Day - Legasi Lagenda". Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023. 31 August 2021
  16. "Merdeka Tournament". International football.net. 25 October 2008. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  17. Neil Morrison (10 September 2015). "Merdeka Tournament (Malaysia)". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  18. "Mohamed Mokhtar Dahari – Century of International Appearances". www.rsssf.org. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  19. Hatano, Morio. "Kunishige Kamamoto - Goals in international matches". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  20. Nazim, Samsun. "Abdul Kadir - Century of International Appearances". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  21. Villante, Eric. "Bum-Kun Cha - Century of international appearances". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  22. Villante, Eric. "Abdul Ghani Minhat – Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
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