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 ==