The Merlion Cup is an invitational

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament that was held in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

annually from 1982–1986, in 1992, 2009 and 2019 and 2023. Participants included full national sides, Olympic sides, Invitational XI's and club teams. After the 1986 tournament, four

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

players ( Igor Vrablic, Hector Marinaro, David Norman and Chris Chueden) were suspended after a match-fixing scandal.

History

The inaugural Merlion Cup was held in 1982 and was held annually until 1986. The tournament was not held in 1987 due to financial constraints and the planned tournament would have scheduling conflict with the

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

. The 1986 edition experienced the worst match attendance since the tournament's inaugural edition in 1982 with only 12,000 people showing up to watch the final between China and North Korea. Two more editions of the tournament were held-in 1992 and 2009.

2016 planned revival

At the 2013

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of ...

(FAS) annual general meeting, FAS president

Zainudin Nordin Zainudin bin Nordin ( Jawi: زاينودين نوردين; born 3 July 1963) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Mayor of Central Singapore District. A former member of the governing People's Action Party, he was the Member of Pa ...

expressed intention to revive the tournament. In early 2015, MP & Silva and FAS managed to secure a six-year partnership worth S$25 million. MP & Silva planned to organise the tournament slated in January 2016 at the 55,000-seater

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

. However, in late 2015, after six months of negotiations, it was announced that negotiation to use the National Stadium as the venue of the Merlion Cup was stalled due to the Singapore Sports Hub demanding an upfront payment reportedly a six-digit figure to rent the stadium as the venue of two editions of the tournament in 2016 and 2017. This led the organisers to find an alternative venue and also considered holding the tournament in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. On 25 December 2015, it was announced that the 2016 Merlion Cup is postponed indefinitely. Among the teams invited to participate along with hosts

were the national teams of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and club sides

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

and Yokohama F. Marinos.

2019 return

On 18 May 2019, it was announced that the Merlion Cup would return, taking place from 7–9 June 2019. It would be an U22 tournament, featuring Singapore U22, Indonesia U22, Thailand U22 and Philippines U22. Singapore U22 would face Philippines U22 while Indonesia U22 would play Thailand U22 in the semi-finals.

2023 return

After a three-year hiatus, Merlion Cup was announced to take place from 24–26 March 2023. The tournament would be a pure U22 with no overage players allowed as per previous editions. The tournament would feature the U22 teams from Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Results

;Notes

References

External links

RSSSF archive
- includes details of all matches {{Friendly association football tournaments in Asia International association football competitions hosted by Singapore Recurring sporting events established in 1982 Non-FIFA football competitions