The Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဘောလုံး အဖွဲ့ချုပ်) is the governing body of
football in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. The MFF oversees the Burmese
men's national team, the
women's national team, and youth national teams as well as national football championships and professional club competitions.
History
Reportedly introduced during the
British colonial era by
James George Scott, a British colonial administrator, football has been the most popular sport in the country. The Burma Football Federation was founded in 1947, a year before the country's independence from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
. The BFF joined
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
in 1952, and the
AFC
AFC may stand for:
Organizations
* Action for Children, a UK children's charity
* AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits
* Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution
* A ...
in 1954.
The federation launched the first
States and Divisions Football Championship in 1952.
[ The highly popular annual competition became the main venue from which to draw out talented players from around the country. This rudimentary level of talent development seemed sufficient for a while. Burma was a top Asian football power, along with ]Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
, in the 1960s and early 1970s, winning two Asian Games tournaments (1966, 1970) and then unprecedented five South East Asian Games
The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...
tournaments (1965–1973) as well as coming in second in the 1968 Asian Cup tournament.[ During a ten-year span between 1961 and 1970, Burma thoroughly dominated the U-19/U-20 Asian Cup, reaching the finals nine times and winning the tournament seven times.
Starting from the mid-1970s, the country's football success—a source of much national pride—also declined rapidly, along with the country's precipitous economic decline. (Aside from a few regional tournament wins, the Burmese men's national team has not won any major football competition since 1973.) The federation did (or could do) little to promote development of football, or nurture the talent through professional league competitions. Until 1996, the country's main football league consisted of Yangon-based clubs run by government ministries and known for corruption. Although private football clubs were allowed to join the Myanmar Premier League in 1996, the league still did not attract much following by Burmese public. In December 2008, the MFF announced the formation a new national professional league, ]Myanmar National League
The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...
, which will start its first full season in 2010.
In accordance with FIFA regulations, the MFF reportedly became an independent organization, free of government control, in March 2009.
Competitions run by the MFF
* Myanmar National League
The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...
* MNL-2
The MNL-2 is the second-tier football league of Myanmar. The official name is MNL-2 League. The inaugural season began in 2013.
History
The MNL-2 was founded in 2013 as part of MFF's effort to extend competitiveness into the nation's football sys ...
* General Aung San Shield
* Myanmar Women League
The Women's League (WL) ( my, မြန်မာ အမျိုးသမီး လိဂ်) is a Myanmar professional league for women's football clubs. At the top of the Myanmar football league system, it is the country's primary football com ...
Programmes
The MFF has launched the FIFA Football for Schools project with the support of the FIFA Foundation on 31 January 2020. The event, hosted by MFF President Zaw Zaw
Zaw Zaw ( my, ဇော်ဇော်) is a Burmese business magnate, banker, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Max Myanmar Group of Companies, a major conglomerate. Zaw Zaw has served as the president of the Myanmar Football ...
, was attended by the State Counsellor H. E. Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
, Union Minister for the Health and Sports Dr. Myint Htwe
Myint Htwe ( my, မြင့်ထွေး ; born 24 September 1948) is a Burmese politician, public health physician, and former Minister for Health and Sports of Myanmar .
Early life and education
Myint Htwe was born on 24 September 1948 ...
, Union Minister for Education Dr. Myo Thein Gyi, FIFA Foundation CEO Youri Djorkaeff, together with guests, presidents and secretaries from local township football associations.
Association staff
See also
* Myanmar national football team
The Myanmar national football team ( my, မြန်မာ့လက်ရွေးစင်အမျိုးသားအသင်း) represents Myanmar in men's international association football and are governed by the Myanmar Football Fede ...
* Myanmar women's national football team
* Myanmar National League
The MPT Myanmar National League ( my, မြန်မာ နေရှင်နယ် လိဂ်; abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which co ...
* Myanmar national under-23 football team
The Myanmar national under-23 football team is the under-23 football team that represents Myanmar at the international football competitions. It is controlled by the Myanmar Football Federation.
Competition records Olympic Games record
* S ...
* Myanmar Grand Royal Challenge Cup
* Myanmar women's national under-20 football team
* Myanmar Premier League
* Myanmar national under-17 football team
* Football in Burma
* Myanmar national under-20 football team
Myanmar national under-20 football team is the under-20 football team of Myanmar. It was known as the Burma national youth football team before 1989. During a ten-year span between 1961 and 1970, Burma thoroughly dominated the U-19/U-20 Asian ...
* Myanmar national futsal team
* Myanmar women's national under-17 football team
* Myanmar national beach soccer team
* Myanmar Football Academy
References
External links
Official website
Soccer Myanmar Website
Myanmar National League
at the FIFA website.
at AFC site
{{AFC associations
Football in Myanmar
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
Football
Sports organizations established in 1947
1947 establishments in Burma