Merdeka Tournament

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International football tournament in Malaysia

title: "Merdeka Tournament" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["merdeka-tournament", "recurring-sporting-events-established-in-1957", "1957-establishments-in-malaya", "men's-international-association-football-invitational-tournaments"] description: "International football tournament in Malaysia" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merdeka_Tournament" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary International football tournament in Malaysia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox football tournament"]

Field	Value
name	Merdeka Football Tournament
image	Pestabola_Merdeka.png
organiser	FAM
founded
region	International
number of teams	Varied
(4 in 2024)
current champions	(13th title)
most successful team	(13 titles)
current	2024 Merdeka Tournament
::

Merdeka Tournament () 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/1958_Merdeka_Cup_Winner,_Malaya.jpg" caption="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. ]] 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Pestabola_Merdeka_logo_badge.jpg" caption="Merdeka Tournament logo in 2013."] ::

Below are the list of Merdeka Football Tournament finals since 1957.

::data[format=table title=""]

Ed.	Year	Winners	Score
Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI	Round-robin
	Round-robin	Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI
	Round-robin
and	0–0	—
	2–1
	2–1
	Round-robin
	1–0
and	1–1	—
	1–0
and	0–0	—
	3–0
	3–2
	1–0
	1–0
	2–1
	3–1
	1–0	South Korea South Korea B
	1–0
	2–0
	1–0
	2–0
and South Korea South Korea B	0–0	—
	2–1
	1–0	Brazil São Paulo XI
Brazil Santa Catarina XI	3–0
Argentina Buenos Aires XI	2–1
South Korea South Korea B	2–0	Brazil Minas Gerais XI
South Korea South Korea B		7–4	Brazil America Rio de Janeiro
	3–0
	3–2
West Germany Hamburger SV	1–0	Austria Tirol Innsbruck
Austria Admira Wacker	3–0
	3–1	South Korea South Korea
	2–0	Hungary Budapesti Vasas
	2–0
	2–1
	2–1
	3–1
	0–0 (6–5 )
	2–0
	2–0
	1–0
::

Records and statistics

Performance by nations

Below are the records of national teams (including youth teams) since 1957. ::data[format=table title=""]

#	Team	Titles	Runners-up
	13	8	20
	11	3	14
	4	5	9
	3	3	6
	2	2	4
	2	0	2
	2	0	2
Hong Kong 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
	0	1	1
::

Performance by state or club teams

Below are the records of state or clubteams since 1957. ::data[format=table title=""]

#	Team	Titles	Runners-up
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
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

::data[format=table]

#	Player	Team	Matches	Goals	Ratio	Ref.	1	2	3	4	5
Mokhtar Dahari	MYS Malaysia	50	36	0.72
Kunishige Kamamoto	JPN Japan	18	22	1.22
Abdul Kadir	IDN Indonesia	36	22	0.61	last=Nazim	first=Samsun	title=Abdul Kadir - Century of International Appearances	url=https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/indo-kadir-intlg.html	url-status=live	archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230013052/http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/indo-kadir-intlg.html	archive-date=30 December 2021
Cha Bum-kun	KOR South Korea	34	21	0.62
Abdul Ghani Minhat	MYS Malaysia	32	19	0.60
::

Top scorers

::data[format=table title=""]

Year	Player	Team
Krishanu Dey Zainal Abidin Hassan		6
Václav Daněk		6
Peter Pacult	Austria Tirol Innsbruck	5
Ernst Ogris	Austria SK Admira Wacker	4
Petar Aleksandrov	SWI Aarau	4
Lee Woo-young	B	3
Chris Killen		3
Bakhtiyor Hamidullaev Husain Ali		3
Indra Putra Mahayuddin		3
Safee Sali		4
Safee Sali (2)		5
Rozaimi Rahman		3
8 players		1
5 players		1
::

Notes

References

"Stadium Merdeka soul of the nation". [[New Straits Times]].
(20 September 2022). "Diiktiraf perlawanan kelas A, ini 5 sebab Pesta Bola Merdeka patut dihidupkan semula". Majoriti.com.
(5 August 2014). "ASIAN ICONS: TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PUTRA AL HAJ". [[Asian Football Confederation.
(12 April 2010). "OCM Sports Museum & Hall of Fame: Tunku Abdul Rahman". [[Olympic Council of Malaysia.
Ajitpal Singh. (7 September 2013). "Glory beckons Malaysia". [[New Straits Times]].
Ted Gim. (2 September 2008). ""Hari Merdeka" Observed in Seoul". malaysia.or.kr.
(22 October 2022). "Merdeka Cup To 'Restart' Again! India May Feature, Feels AIFF Chief". MENAFN.
(1990). "Asiaweek". Asiaweek Limited.
"Piala FAM, Pestabola Merdeka bakal kembali". Bebas News.
"India eye glory in 'mini Asia Cup'". [[The Shillong Times]].
"Pestabola Merdeka: The legacy of Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj's Wisdom and Courage". Legasi Lagenda.
"Hope Floats For Stalled Merdeka Tournament". New Straits Times.
Eric Samuel. (31 August 2017). "Halcyon days of Malaysian football". [[The Star (Malaysia).
Sulaiman Ismail. (25 December 2018). "Pestabola Merdeka Akan Dianjurkan Mengikut Kalendar FIFA". Semuanya Bola.
T. Avineshwaran. (13 May 2004). "Sporting landmarks through the years". The Star.
(31 August 2021). "Happy 64th Independence Day - Legasi Lagenda".
"FAM to invite three countries for Merdeka Tournament | New Straits Times".
(25 October 2008). "Merdeka Tournament". International football.net.
Neil Morrison. (10 September 2015). "Merdeka Tournament (Malaysia)". [[Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation]].
"Mohamed Mokhtar Dahari – Century of International Appearances".
Hatano, Morio. "Kunishige Kamamoto - Goals in international matches".
Nazim, Samsun. "Abdul Kadir - Century of International Appearances".
Villante, Eric. "Bum-Kun Cha - Century of international appearances".
Villante, Eric. "Abdul Ghani Minhat – Goals in International Matches".

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