Pestabola Merdeka

Pestabola Merdeka

Founded	1957
Current champions	Malaysia U-23
Most successful team(s)	Malaysia (11titles) and  South Korea (11titles)
Website	Official website
2013 Pestabola Merdeka

Pestabola Merdeka or Merdeka Tournament is a football tournament held in Malaysia to honour the Independence Day. The competition is named after the Malay word for independence.

History

Tunku Abdul Rahman and Malaya squad with Merdeka Cup on 1958.

The Pestabola Merdeka is Asia`s oldest football tournament which invited football playing nations to compete since 1957.^[1][2][3] 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 send their full senior players.^[4] After 1980s, it lack of interest because many asian nations more focus on qualification phase in AFC Asian Cup.

The first edition of the Pestabola Merdeka 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 lifted the trophy nine times since 1958, emerged runners-up on eight occasions, and shared the winner’s rostrum twice with South Korea (1960 and 1979), while the Koreans won it seven times. Indonesia, Taiwan and Myanmar also had their fair share of the accolades. The other champions were Czechoslovakia Olympic team (1987), Austria’s SK Admira Wacker (1991), Buenos Aires XI (1983), Hamburger SV (1988), Morocco (1980), New Zealand (2000), Santa Catarina XI (1982) and Uzbekistan (2001). Brazilian clubs – Sao Paulo XI, Minas Gerais XI, and America FC Rio de Janeiro finished runners-up together with Japan and India in the 56 years history of the tournament.

Champions

Below are the list of champions in Pestabola Merdeka competitions since 1957.^[5]

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score in final	Notes
1957	Hong Kong	Indonesia		(tournament in group stages)
1958	Malaya	Hong Kong
1959	Malaya	Indonesia
1960	South Korea	Malaya	0–0	(trophy shared)
1961	Indonesia	Malaya	2–1
1962	Indonesia	Pakistan	2–1
1963	Taiwan	Japan		(tournament in group stages)
1964	Burma	India	1–0
1965	South Korea	Taiwan	1–1	(trophy shared)
1966	South Vietnam	Burma	1–0
1967	South Korea	Burma	0–0	(trophy shared)
1968	Malaysia	Burma	3–0
1969	Indonesia	Malaysia	3–2
1970	South Korea	Burma	1–0
1971	Burma	Indonesia	1–0
1972	South Korea	Malaysia	2–1
1973	Malaysia	Kuwait	3–1
1974	Malaysia	South Korea	1–0
1975	South Korea	Malaysia	1–0
1976	Malaysia	Japan	2–0
1977	South Korea	Iraq	1–0
1978	South Korea	Iraq	2–0
1979	Korea Republic B	Malaysia	0–0	(trophy shared)
1980	Morocco	Malaysia	2–1
1981	Iraq	Sao Paulo XI	1–0
1982	Santa Catarina XI	Ghana	3–0
1983	Buenos Aires XI	Algeria XI	2–1
1984	Korea Republic U-23	Minas Gerais XI	2–0
1985	Korea Republic U-23	America FC Rio de Janeiro	7–4 (a.e.t)
1986	Malaysia	Czechoslovakia XI	3–0
1987	Czechoslovakia Olympic	South Korea	3–2
1988	Hamburger SV	FC Tirol Innsbruck	1–0
1989–1990	(not held)
1991	SK Admira Wacker	China Olympic Team	3–0
1992	(not held)
1993	Malaysia	Korea Republic B	3–1
1994	(not held)
1995	Iraq	Budapesti Vasas SC	2–0
1996–1999	(not held)
2000	New Zealand	Malaysia	2–0
2001	Uzbekistan	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2–1
2002–2005	(not held)
2006	Myanmar	Indonesia	2–1
2007	Malaysia U-23	Myanmar	3–1
2008	Vietnam U-23	Malaysia	0–0	(Penalties) 6–5
2009	(Cancelled)
2010–2012	(not held)
2013	Malaysia U-23	Myanmar U-23	2–0

Teams achievements

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

#	Teams	Champions	Runner-ups	Trophy shared	Total
1	Malaysia (including Malaya)	9	8	2	11
2	South Korea	7	3	4	11
3	Myanmar/Burma	3	4	1	4
4	Indonesia	3	4	-	3
5	Iraq	2	2	-	2
6	Vietnam (including  South Vietnam)	2	-	-	2
6	Malaysia U-23	2	-	-	2
7	Czechoslovakia	1	1	-	1
8	Taiwan	1	-	1	2
9	SK Admira Wacker	1	-	-	1
9	Buenos Aires XI	1	-	-	1
9	Hamburger SV	1	-	-	1
9	Hong Kong	1	-	-	1
9	Morocco	1	-	-	1
9	New Zealand	1	-	-	1
9	Santa Catarina XI	1	-	-	1
9	Uzbekistan	1	-	-	1
10	India	-	2	-	(2)
10	Japan	-	2	-	(2)
11	Pakistan	-	1	-	(1)
11	Kuwait	-	1	-	(1)
11	Sao Paulo XI	-	1	-	(1)
11	Ghana	-	1	-	(1)
11	Algeria	-	1	-	(1)
11	Minas Gerais XI	-	1	-	(1)
11	América FC Rio de Janeiro	-	1	-	(1)
11	FC Tirol Innsbruck	-	1	-	(1)
11	China Olympic Team	-	1	-	(1)
11	Budapesti Vasas SC	-	1	-	(1)
11	Bosnia and Herzegovina	-	1	-	(1)
11	Myanmar U-23	-	1	-	(1)

References

External links

• Merdeka Tournament Official Website