The Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဘောလုံး အဖွဲ့ချုပ်) is the governing body of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 C. Wells, Joh ...

. 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. Headquater of MFF

History

Reportedly introduced during the British colonial era by

James George Scott Sir James George Scott (pseudonym Shway Yoe, 25 December 1851 – 4 April 1935) was a Scottish journalist and colonial administrator who helped establish British colonial rule in Burma, and in addition introduced football to Burma. Life He wa ...

, 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 North ...

. 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 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 The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

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 The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

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 Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

-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

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 General Aung San Shield (formerly ''MFF Cup'') is the top football knockout tournament in Myanmar. On 26 March 2014, MFF League Committee Meeting decides the knock-out cup (General Aung San Shield) winner would compete in ''Toyota Mekong Champion ...

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 co ...

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 F ...

, 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 ...

, 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 Myo Thein Gyi ( my, မျိုးသိမ်းကြီး; born 2 September 1965) is the former Minister for Education of Myanmar. He previously served as Professor of Mathematics Department, Dagon University, Director General of Departme ...

, FIFA Foundation CEO

Youri Djorkaeff Youri Raffi Djorkaeff (born 9 March 1968) is a French former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward. Throughout his club career, he played for teams in France, Italy, Germany, England, and the United States. At ...

, together with guests, presidents and secretaries from local township football associations.

Association staff

References

External links

Official website

Soccer Myanmar Website

Myanmar National League

at the FIFA website.

at AFC site {{AFC associations Football in Myanmar

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...