THE Merdeka Tournament was once regarded as the Grand Old Lady of Asia where top teams from far and wide would love an invitation to the ball.
There was no lack of top teams from the continents, as they all wanted to be part of the most prestigious competition in Asia. This was in the heady days of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Latin teams came to tango at the Merdeka Stadium, the African teams came with speed and power, the Middle East outfits came with well-oiled teamwork, and the European clubs came with a professional approach.
South Korea, Japan, Kuwait and Iraq, currently the top teams in Asia, used to be regulars while Morocco and Ghana also joined the fray.
And top clubs from Brazil such as Sao Paulo XI, Santa Catarina XI and America FC Rio de Janeiro didn’t mind making the long tiring journey from the Western Hemisphere to Kuala Lumpur to show Malaysians some Samba soccer.
SK Admira Wacker of Austria and Hamburger SV of Germany also came to give some European flavour.
Back in those days, teams would reserve their international dates in the hope of getting to play in the Merdeka Tournament.
Among the Malaysian legends that took on those powerful foreign teams were Ghani Minhat, Mokhtar Dahari, Shaharuddin Abdullah, Soh Chin Aun, Wong Choon Wah, Dollah Salleh and Zainal Abidin Hassan.
At the other end, the foreign stars that captured the imagination of fans at the Merdeka Tournament were South Korea’s Cha Bum-kun, Japan’s Kunishige Kamamoto, Singapore’s Fandi Ahmad and V. Sundramoorthy, Ghana’s Ablade Kumah and Indonesia’s Bambang Pamungkas.
Mokhtar, called “Supermokh” by his fans, was part of the Malaysian team that won the Merdeka Tournament in 1973,
1974, 1976 and 1979, while Ghani Minhat, arguably Malaysia’s all time greatest player, lifted the trophy in 1958, 1959 and 1960.
But sadly in the past three decades or more, the Merdeka Tournament has lost its allure, as the FA of Malaysia (FAM) struggle to get teams to come to Malaysia.
Many foreign teams tend to decline invitations to the Merdeka Tournament due to the congested international football calendar, which wasn’t the situation in the early days.
For this year, FAM hope to revive the Merdeka Tournament that was incepted in 1957. But this remains to be seen.
That is because apart from getting good suitors to take part, setting up a date for this erstwhile Grand Old Lady of Asia is proving to be difficult.
After last staging the Merdeka Tournament in 2013 (reduced to an Under-23 event), FAM plan to bring back the event this year but it is affected by the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup which start in June.
The signs that the Merdeka tournament was getting unpopular were already there in the 1990s when even teams in Southeast Asia started sending only their youth sides.
Things have reached such a stage that FAM are even struggling to find decent teams for the Merdeka Tournament.
For this year, FAM thought of rebranding the Merdeka Tournament and holding it next month.
However, they eventually found the dates unsuitable because the Merdeka Tournament should be appropriately held during Malaysia’s Independence Day.
Most of the previous Merdeka Tournaments were held in August or September.
This has left FAM looking at postponing the tournament to next year or 2021, as revealed by their president Datuk Hamidin Amin in October.
But apparently, they have changed their mind on this.
FAM secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said: “We want to revive the Merdeka Tournament this year but whether it becomes a reality, will depend on the Asian Cup preliminary stage draw, which will be conducted in April.
“These matches will take up most of the dates on the Fifa calendar later this year. From there, we will know the available dates for the Merdeka Tournament,” added Stuart.
So far, it looks unlikely that FAM can bring back the good old days .