ASEAN Championship

ASEAN Championship

Organising body	AFF
Founded	1996;28 years ago (1996)
Region	Southeast Asia
Number of teams	10 (finals) 12 (eligible to enter qualification)
Current champions	Thailand (7th title)
Most successful team(s)	Thailand (7 titles)
Website	affmitsubishielectriccup.com
2024 ASEAN Championship

The ASEAN Championship (formerly known as the AFF Championship), currently known as the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the primary football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) for men's football national teams in the Southeast Asia.

A biennial international competition, it is contested by the men's national teams of the AFF to determine the sub-continental champion of Southeast Asia. The competition has been held every two years since 1996, scheduled to be in the even-numbered year, except for 2007, and 2020 (which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). It was felt that a close co-operation at the football level would improve the quality of sport across the region and make it more competitive at the Asian and world level.

The ASEAN Championship title has been won by four national teams; Thailand have won seven titles, Singapore has four titles, Vietnam has two titles and Malaysia with one title. To date, Thailand and Singapore are the only teams in history to have won consecutive titles; Thailand in 2000 and 2002, 2014 and 2016 and also 2020 and 2022, and Singapore in 2004 and 2007. It is one of the most watched football tournaments in the region. The ASEAN Championship is also recognized as an 'A' international tournament by FIFA with FIFA ranking points being awarded since 1996. ^[1]

Since 2018, the championship winners would compete in the following AFF–EAFF Champions Trophy, against the winner of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship, the champions of East Asia, to determine the champions of East and Southeast Asia. Although having joined the AFF on 27 August 2013, Australia has not played the ASEAN Championship as part of the initial agreement. ^[2]

History

The first ASEAN Championship took place in 1996 with the six founding members of ASEAN Federation competing with four nations being invited that came in that region. The final saw Thailand become the first champions of ASEAN as they defeated Malaysia 1–0 in Singapore. ^[3] The top four nations automatically qualified through to the finals in the following edition. This meant the other six nations had to compete in qualifying for the remaining four spots. Myanmar, Singapore, Laos and Philippines all made it through to the main tournament. No country have ever won the AFF Championship title three times in a row. Singapore (2004 and 2007) and Thailand (2000 and 2002 and again in 2014 and 2016) have won twice in a row.

Organisation

Sports marketing, media and event management firm, Lagardère Sports has been involved in the tournament since the inaugural edition in 1996.^{[ citation needed ]}

Title sponsorship

Founded as the Tiger Cup after Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries brand Tiger Beer, it sponsored the competition from the competition's inauguration in 1996 until the 2004 edition. After Asia Pacific Breweries withdrew as title sponsor, the competition was known simply as the AFF Championship for the 2007 edition. In 2008, Japanese auto-company Suzuki bought the naming rights for the competition, and the competition was named the AFF Suzuki Cup until the 2020 edition. ^[4] On 23 May 2022, AFF announced a new title sponsorship deal with Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric and the competition was named the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup starting in the 2022 edition. ^[5]

On 29 February 2024, AFF and Mitsubishi Electric, who is the title partner of the championship, launched a new logo and brand identity for the event. As part of the rebranding, the region’s premier competition formerly known as the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup, was also renamed to the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup.

Period	Sponsor	Name
1996–2004	Tiger Beer	Tiger Cup
2007	No title sponsor	AFF Championship
2008–2020	Suzuki	AFF Suzuki Cup
2022	Mitsubishi Electric	AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup
2024–		ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup

Format

From 2004, the knockout stage is played over two legs on a home-and-away format. Since the 2007 edition, there was no third place match; semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order. The away goals rule has been applied for knockout stage since the 2010 edition. ^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Starting with the 2018 edition, a new format was applied. The nine highest ranked teams qualified automatically while the 10th and 11th ranked teams playing in a two-legged qualifier. The 10 teams were split in two groups of five and play a round robin system, with each team playing two home and two away fixtures. A draw was made to determine where the teams play while the format of the knockout round remained unchanged. ^[6]

Results

Year	Host		Final				Third place playoff				Number of teams	Total matches played	Total goals in tournament
			Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
1996	Singapore		Thailand	1–0	Malaysia		Vietnam	3–2	Indonesia		10	24	93
1998	Vietnam		Singapore	1–0	Vietnam		Indonesia	3–3( a.e.t. ) (5–4 p)	Thailand		8	16	55
2000	Thailand		Thailand	4–1	Indonesia		Malaysia	3–0	Vietnam		9	20	67
2002	Indonesia   Singapore		Thailand	2–2( a.e.t. ) (4–2 p)	Indonesia		Vietnam	2–1	Malaysia		9	20	92
Year	Group stage hosts		Final				Third place playoff or losing semi-finalists				Number of teams	Total matches played	Total goals in tournament
			Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
2004	Malaysia   Vietnam		Singapore	3–1 2–1	Indonesia		Malaysia	2–1	Myanmar		10	27	113
			won 5–2 on aggregate
2007	Singapore   Thailand		Singapore	2–1 1–1	Thailand		Malaysia and   Vietnam				8	18	50
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2008	Indonesia   Thailand		Vietnam	2–1 1–1	Thailand		Indonesia and   Singapore				8	18	56
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2010	Indonesia   Vietnam		Malaysia	3–0 1–2	Indonesia		Philippines and   Vietnam				8	18	51
			won 4–2 on aggregate
2012	Malaysia   Thailand		Singapore	3–1 0–1	Thailand		Malaysia and   Philippines				8	18	48
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2014	Singapore   Vietnam		Thailand	2–0 2–3	Malaysia		Philippines and   Vietnam				8	18	65
			won 4–3 on aggregate
2016	Myanmar   Philippines		Thailand	1–2 2–0	Indonesia		Myanmar and   Vietnam				8	18	50
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2018	ASEAN		Vietnam	2–2 1–0	Malaysia		Philippines and   Thailand				10	26	80
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2020 [lower-alpha 2]	Singapore [lower-alpha 3]		Thailand [lower-alpha 4]	4–0 2–2	Indonesia [lower-alpha 4]		Singapore and   Vietnam				10	26	88
			won 6–2 on aggregate
2022	ASEAN		Thailand	2–2 1–0	Vietnam		Indonesia and   Malaysia				10	26	90
			won 3–2 on aggregate
2024	ASEAN										10

Performances by country

Team	Champions	Runners-up
Thailand	7 (1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022)	3 (2007, 2008, 2012)
Singapore	4 (1998, 2004, 2007, 2012)	–
Vietnam	2 (2008, 2018)	2 (1998, 2022)
Malaysia	1 (2010)	3 (1996, 2014, 2018)
Indonesia	–	6 (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2020)
Total	14	14

Participating nations

Team	1996 (10)	1998 (8)	2000 (9)	2002 (9)	2004 (10)	2007 (8)	2008 (8)	2010 (8)	2012 (8)	2014 (8)	2016 (8)	2018 (10)	2020 (10)	2022 (10)	Total
Australia	Not an AFF member									×	×	×	×	×	0
Brunei	GS	•	×	×	×	•	•	×	•	•	•	•	×	GS	2
Cambodia	GS	•	GS	GS	GS	•	GS	•	•	•	GS	GS	GS	GS	9
Indonesia	4th	3rd	2nd	2nd	2nd	GS	SF	2nd	GS	GS	2nd	GS	2nd	SF	14
Laos	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	•	GS	GS	GS	13
Malaysia	2nd	GS	3rd	4th	3rd	SF	GS	1st	SF	2nd	GS	2nd	GS	SF	14
Myanmar	GS	GS	GS	GS	4th	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	SF	GS	GS	GS	14
Philippines	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	GS	•	SF	SF	SF	GS	SF	GS	GS	13
Singapore	GS	1st	GS	GS	1st	1st	SF	GS	1st	GS	GS	GS	SF	GS	14
Thailand	1st	4th	1st	1st	GS	2nd	2nd	GS	2nd	1st	1st	SF	1st	1st	14
Timor-Leste	Part of Indonesia			×	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	GS	GS	•	3
Vietnam	3rd	2nd	4th	3rd	GS	SF	1st	SF	GS	SF	SF	1st	SF	2nd	14

Legend

1st – Champions 2nd – Runners-up 3rd – Third place 4th – Fourth place SF – Semi-finalist

GS – Group stage Q – Qualified for the current tournament  ••  — Qualified but withdrew  •  – Did not qualify  ×  – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned    – Hosts

Awards

Tournament	Most valuable player	Top goalscorer(s)	Goals	Young player of the tournament	Fair play award
1996	Zainal Abidin Hassan	Natipong Sritong-In	7	Not awarded	Brunei
1998	Nguyễn Hồng Sơn	Myo Hlaing Win	4		Not awarded
2000	Kiatisuk Senamuang	Gendut Doni Christiawan Worrawoot Srimaka	5		Malaysia
2002	Therdsak Chaiman	Bambang Pamungkas	8		Not awarded
2004	Lionel Lewis	Ilham Jaya Kesuma	7
2007	Noh Alam Shah	Noh Alam Shah	10
2008	Dương Hồng Sơn	Budi Sudarsono Agu Casmir Teerasil Dangda	4		Thailand
2010	Firman Utina	Safee Sali	5		Philippines
2012	Shahril Ishak	Teerasil Dangda	5		Malaysia
2014	Chanathip Songkrasin	Safiq Rahim	6		Vietnam
2016	Chanathip Songkrasin	Teerasil Dangda	6		Thailand
2018	Nguyễn Quang Hải	Adisak Kraisorn	8		Malaysia
2020	Chanathip Songkrasin [lower-alpha 4]	Safawi Rasid Bienvenido Marañón Chanathip Songkrasin [lower-alpha 4] Teerasil Dangda [lower-alpha 4]	4	Pratama Arhan [lower-alpha 4]	Indonesia [lower-alpha 4]
2022	Theerathon Bunmathan	Teerasil Dangda Nguyễn Tiến Linh	6	Marselino Ferdinan	Malaysia

Winning coaches

AFF Championship-winning coaches

Year	Winning coaches	National team
1996	Thawatchai Sartjakul	Thailand
1998	Barry Whitbread	Singapore
2000	Peter Withe	Thailand
2002	Peter Withe (2)	Thailand
2004	Radojko Avramović	Singapore
2007	Radojko Avramović (2)	Singapore
2008	Henrique Calisto	Vietnam
2010	K. Rajagopal	Malaysia
2012	Radojko Avramović (3)	Singapore
2014	Kiatisuk Senamuang [upper-alpha 1]	Thailand
2016	Kiatisuk Senamuang (2)	Thailand
2018	Park Hang-seo	Vietnam
2020	Alexandré Pölking	Thailand [lower-alpha 4]
2022	Alexandré Pölking (2)	Thailand

Notes

1. being the only person to win the competition as a player (1996, 2000, 2002) then coach (2014, 2016).

All-time ranking table

As of the 2022 edition

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Best finish
1	Thailand	14	85	54	21	10	195	68	+127	183	Champions(1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022)
2	Vietnam	14	79	41	22	16	161	77	+84	145	Champions(2008, 2018)
3	Indonesia	14	76	37	18	21	182	107	+75	129	Runners-up (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2020)
4	Malaysia	14	75	34	15	26	129	88	+41	117	Champions(2010)
5	Singapore	14	66	33	16	17	118	68	+50	115	Champions(1998, 2004, 2007, 2012)
6	Myanmar	14	52	15	11	26	78	110	–32	56	Semi-finalists (2004, 2016)
7	Philippines	13	53	11	9	33	55	115	–60	42	Semi-finalists (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018)
8	Cambodia	9	34	6	0	28	39	110	–71	18	Group stage (9 times)
9	Laos	13	45	2	6	37	32	170	–138	12	Group stage (13 times)
10	Brunei	2	8	1	0	7	3	37	–34	3	Group stage (1996, 2022)
11	East Timor	3	12	0	0	12	6	50	–44	0	Group stage (2004, 2018, 2020)

Records and statistics

All time top goalscorers

As of 2022 final

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Teerasil Dangda	25
2	Noh Alam Shah	17
3	Worrawoot Srimaka	15
	Lê Công Vinh
5	Lê Huỳnh Đức	14
6	Adisak Kraisorn	13
	Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto
8	Bambang Pamungkas	12
	Kiatisuk Senamuang
10	Agu Casmir	11
11	Khairul Amri	10

1. Bold denotes players still playing international football

Other statistics

See also: List of AFF Championship hat-tricks

• Indonesia (2004), Thailand (2008) and Vietnam (2022) did not concede a single goal in their group stage campaigns in the indicated years
• The 2002 AFF Championship Final is still the only final to have been settled on penalties

Most titles

•   Thailand – 7 (1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022)

Consecutive championships

•   Thailand – 3 (2000 and 2002, 2014 and 2016, 2020 and 2022)
•   Singapore – 1 (2004 and 2007)

Biggest wins

•   Indonesia 13–1   Philippines on 23 December 2002 at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta)

Most successful coach

• Radojko Avramović – 3 (  Singapore , 2004, 2007 and 2012)

Most successful player

• Sarach Yooyen – 4 (  Thailand , 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022)

Most goals scored in a single tournament

• Noh Alam Shah – 10 (  Singapore , 2007)

Most goals scored in a match

• Noh Alam Shah – 7 (for   Singapore vs   Laos , 2007)

Most tournaments scored in

• Teerasil Dangda – 4 (  Thailand , 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020)

First ever hat-trick

• K. Sanbagamaran – 53 minutes (for   Malaysia vs   Philippines on 4 September 1996)

Fastest hat-trick

• Sarayuth Chaikamdee – 4 minutes (for   Thailand vs Timor-Leste on 12 December 2004)

Youngest player

• Zenivio – 16 years 7 months 13 days old (for Timor-Leste vs   Thailand on 5 December 2021)

Youngest goal scorer

• Marselino Ferdinan – 18 years 3 months 24 days (for   Indonesia vs   Philippines on 2 January 2023)

Oldest player

• Hassan Sunny – 38 years 9 months 1 day old (for   Singapore vs   Malaysia on 3 January 2023)

Oldest goal scorer

• Aleksandar Đurić – 42 years 3 months 7 day old (for   Singapore vs   Malaysia on 25 November 2012)

See also

• Football at the Southeast Asian Games
• AFF Women's Championship
• AFC Asian Cup
• CAFA Championship
• EAFF E-1 Football Championship
• SAFF Championship
• WAFF Championship

Notes

1. Except the 2020 edition due to all matches being hosted in centralized venue, Singapore.
2. Postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. The 2020 AFF Championship was hosted in a centralized venue due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia. On 28 September 2021, it was announced that Singapore would host the tournament. ^[7]
4. Due to non-compliance with conditions set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Thailand and Indonesia were not allowed to be represented by their national flags. ^{[8] [9]} The sanctions took effect in October 2021. ^[10] Thailand is represented by its national team logo while Indonesia is represented by its coat of arms.

References

1. Isu Mata FIFA Ranking Dalam Sejarah Kejohanan Piala AFF (in Malay) - Football Tribe, 13 November 2016.
2. Bossi, Dominic (31 January 2019). "Socceroos seeking entrance into 2020 Suzuki Cup". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 31 January 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
3. "About AFF". aseanfootball.org. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
4. "Global News News.2008". Global Suzuki. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
5. "AFF Announces Mitsubishi Electric As The New Title Sponsor Of AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022". www.affmitsubishielectriccup.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
6. "New format for AFF Suzuki Cup 2018". AFF – The Official Website Of The Asean Football Federation. Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
7. Noronha, Anselm (28 September 2021). "Singapore to host AFF Suzuki Cup 2020: Teams, how to watch & more". Goal.com. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
8. "Thailand loses right to host tournaments". Bangkok Post. Bangkok Post Public Co. Ltd. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2021. The country has also been denied the right to display its national flag at any such events (international football events).
9. "Chairman Of PSSI: Regarding The Flag At AFF 2020, We Will Follow Whatever The Decision Is". VOI – Waktunya Merevolusi Pemberitaan. 24 November 2021. Archived from the original on 22 April 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
10. "WADA confirms non-compliance of five Anti-Doping Organizations (7 October 2021)". World Anti-Doping Agency. 7 October 2021. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

External links

• Official website
• AFF Cup — RSSSF