KUALA LUMPUR: After a nine-year lapse, the Pestabola Merdeka tournament will be back this year as part of the FA of Malaysia's 90th anniversary celebrations.
Football fans can look forward to the return of the nation's second oldest competition (after the Malaysia Cup) in October.
FAM secretary general Noor Azman Rahman said: "We will be hosting the Pestabola Merdeka and we plan to kick off in October."
The tournament, in its 42nd edition, will be a good build-up for Harimau Malaya who are preparing for the 2023 Asian Cup, which is expected to be held at the end of the year or in early 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
The iconic Merdeka Tournament, which started in 1957, has drawn the likes of South Korea, Buenos Aires XI, Hamburger SV, Hong Kong League XI, New Zealand, Sao Paulo XI, Ghana and Algeria.
The Merdeka Tournament had featured legendary footballers Datuk Mokhtar Dahari, Datuk Soh Chin Ann, Ghani Minhat, South Korea's Kim Jae-han, Cha Bum-kun and Lee Woon-jae, Japan's Kunishige Kamamoto and Yasuhiko Okudera, Indonesia's Abdul Kadir, Iraqi's Hussein Saeed Mohammed and Ghana's Abedi Ayew.
