The Merlion Cup was an invitational football tournament that was held in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

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

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

players (

Igor Vrablic Igor Vrablic (born 19 July 1965) is a Canadian former soccer player who played at both professional and international levels, as a striker. Early and personal life Vrablic was born in Bratislava and raised in Waterloo, Ontario. Career Cl ...

Hector Marinaro Hector Luis Marinaro Jr (born December 6, 1964) is a Canadian soccer coach and former player who is the men's soccer coach at John Carroll University. As a player he was the all-time leader in points and goals in professional indoor soccer, a ...

, David Norman and

Chris Chueden Christopher Hoyer Chueden (born 18 February 1961 in British Columbia) is a Canadian retired soccer player who earned six caps for the national team in 1986, scoring one goal in the process. In 1979, Chueden was on the Canadian U-20 team at th ...

) 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 1986 edition experienced the worst match attendance since the tournament's inaugural edition in 1982 with only 12,000 people showed 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 (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 Parli ...

expressed intention to revive the tournament. In early 2015,

MP & Silva MP & Silva Limited was an international sports marketing and media rights firm based in London. Founded in 2004 by Italian businessmen Riccardo Silva and Andrea Radrizzani, the company was primarily involved in the acquisition and international ...

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 stadiu ...

. 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. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. 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, ; 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 ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and club sides

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in ...

and

Yokohama F. Marinos is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club competes in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Having won the J-League title four times an ...

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.

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