ASEAN Football Championship
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The ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as Tiger Cup) is a biennial international football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation, contested by the national teams of nations in Southeast Asia. Since it was inaugurated in 1996, the cup has been won three times by both Singapore and Thailand. Indonesia has been runner-up three times, but has never won the cup. Malaysia and Vietnam have also been runners-up once each.
Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, makers of Tiger Beer, was the sponsor of the competition from its inauguration till 2005, during which the competition was known as the Tiger Cup. The competition was renamed as the ASEAN Football Championship from 2007 as a result of a termination of the sponsorship deal.
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[edit] Tournaments
[edit] 1996
The 1996 event was held in Singapore, and was won by the favourites, Thailand, who defeated Malaysia 1-0 in the final.
[edit] 1998
The 1998 tournament, held in Vietnam. Group A's matches were played in Ho Chi Minh City hosted Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Philippines. And Group B's matches were played in Hanoi hosted Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Laos.
This tournament was marred by an unsportsmanlike match between Thailand and Indonesia during the group stage of the competition. Both teams were already assured of qualification for the semi-finals, but both teams knew that the winners of the game would face hosts Vietnam in the semi-finals, while the losing team would face Singapore who were perceived to be easier opposition and avoid the fuss of moving training bases from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi for the semi-final. The first half saw little action, with both teams barely making an attempt to score. During the second half both teams managed to score, partly thanks to half-hearted defending, resulting in a 2-2 scoreline after 90 minutes. Then, during injury time, Indonesian defender Mursyid Effendi deliberately kicked the ball into his own goal, despite the Thai's attempts to stop him doing so, thus handing Thailand a 3-2 victory. Both teams were fined for "violating the spirit of the game" and Mursyid Effendi was banned from football for life.
In the semi-finals, Thailand lost to Vietnam, and Indonesia also lost to Singapore. In the final, the title was to elude the hosts as they went down 1-0 to unfancied Singapore in one of the competition's biggest shocks to date.
[edit] 2000
Thailand hosted the Tiger Cup in 2000, and won the tournament as it powered through the competition, ending with a hat-trick by Thai player Worrawoot Srimaka to clinch a decisive 4-1 win over Indonesia. Worrawoot also finished the tournament as a joint top-scorers with Indonesia's Gendut Doni Christiawan with 5 goals each.
[edit] 2002
In the final match between Thailand and Indonesia, Thailand took a 2-0 lead against hosts Indonesia by the end of the first half. However, the Indonesians battled back to level the score and force the game into a penalty shootout, which was won 4-2 by the Thais.
Therdsak Chaiman was named the Most Valuable Player of this tournament, while Indonesia's Bambang Pamungkas finished as the tournament's top scorer with 8 goals.
[edit] 2004
The 2004 event was held from 7 December 2004 through 16 January 2005. Matches for Preliminary Group A were held in Vietnam while Preliminary Group B was staged in Malaysia.
The tournament marked the first major football tournament for East Timor after gaining independence in 2000.
Despite an unimpressive group stage campaign where Singapore notched draws against Vietnam and Indonesia, the team made it to the final where it clinched a 5-2 win aggregate against Indonesia in the 2-legged match (home and away). In the first leg held in Jakarta, Singapore surprised punters with a 3-1 victory. Singapore won 2-1 on home ground in the return leg 8 days later to claim the country's first international trophy on home soil.
In the 3rd-4th place playoff, Malaysia beat Myanmar for the third place.
Lionel Lewis was named the Most Valuable Player of this tournament, while Ilham Jayakesuma of Indonesia won the golden boot with 7 goals in this tournament.
[edit] 2007
The 2007 Cup was renamed the AFF Football Championship. This was due to the cup's main sponsor, Tiger Beer, not continuing their title sponsorship. This was the last event held at Singapore's National Stadium before its redevelopment.
The 2007 AFF Cup was co-hosted by three time champions, Thailand, and defending champions and eventual winners Singapore. The two hosts are the only two teams that have won the championship since its inception in 1996.
The qualifying round for the lower ranked teams in Southeast Asia was held at the Panaad Stadium, in Bacolod City, Philippines from Novermber 12-20 2006. This tournament marks the first time that lower ranked teams were required to participate in the qualifying round (in previous tournaments all teams participated in the final tournament). The teams that competed were host nation (for the qualifying round only) the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, East Timor and Brunei. They were placed in a single group of five with each team playing each other once. The top two teams in the qualifying round, Philippines and Laos, advanced to the finals joined by automatic qualifiers Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia.
After a group stage with two pools of four the two host nations met in a two game final. In the first leg of the final, a controversial penalty was awarded to Singapore at the 83rd minute of the match, and the Thailand team walked off the pitch as a protest to the referee's decision. The Thailand team returned to the pitch at the 98th minute, and Singapore later won 2-1.
In the second leg of the final, Singapore had a goal controversially chalked off for being offside[citation needed], but finally drew 1-1 to fellow co-host Thailand, with Khairul Amri scoring the decisive goal in the closing stages of the match, thus giving Singapore their 2nd title in succession, winning with an aggregate score of 3-2, and successfully defending the title. While Thailand can point to the controversial penalty for their defeat in the first leg, they failed to defeat Singapore in the Bangkok second-leg. It could have been worse for Thailand had the match officials seen Thai midfielder Datsakorn Thonglao head-butt Singapore's Khairul Amri to vent his anger after the equaliser[citation needed].
Noh Alam Shah of Singapore was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and the Golden Boot Award winner for scoring 10 goals, 7 of which came against Laos.
Singapore set an AFF Cup record of a 15-match unbeaten run under coach Radojko Avramovic, stretching back to the 2004 Tiger Cup, and 17-match unbeaten run since the 4-0 defeat at home to neighbours Malaysia in the same competition on 18 December 2002.
[edit] Results
[edit] Summaries
With effect from 2004, the final is played over two legs. However, away goals rule is not applied in this tournament.
| Year | Host(s) | Final | Third Place | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | Third Place | Score | Fourth Place | ||||
| 1996 Details |
 Singapore |
 Thailand |
1–0 |  Malaysia |
 Vietnam |
3–2 |  Indonesia |
||
| 1998 Details |
 Vietnam |
 Singapore |
1–0 | Vietnam |
Indonesia |
3–3 after extra time (5–4) on penalties |
Thailand |
||
| 2000 Details |
 Thailand |
Thailand |
4–1 | Indonesia |
Malaysia |
3–0 | Vietnam |
||
| 2002 Details |
 Indonesia Singapore |
Thailand |
2–2 after extra time (4–2) on penalties |
Indonesia |
Vietnam |
2–1 | Malaysia |
||
| 2004 Details |
 Malaysia Vietnam |
Singapore |
3–1* *2–1 |
Indonesia |
Malaysia |
2–1 |  Myanmar |
||
| won 5–2 on aggregate | |||||||||
| 2007 Details |
Singapore Thailand |
Singapore |
*2–1 1–1* |
Thailand |
Malaysia Vietnam |
n/a** | |||
| won 3–2 on aggregate | |||||||||
| 2008 Details |
Indonesia Thailand |
||||||||
- * = Host
- ** = There was no official Third Place match and no official third place was awarded; Malaysia and Vietnam lost in the semi-finals.
[edit] Successful national teams
| Team | Titles | Runners-up | Third Place | Fourth Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand |
3 (1996, 2000, 2002) | 1 (2007) | - | 1 (1998) |
| Singapore |
3 (1998, 2004, 2007) | - | - | - |
| Indonesia |
- | 3 (2000, 2002, 2004) | 1 (1998) | 1 (1996) |
| Vietnam |
- | 1 (1998) | 3 (1996, 2002, 2007) | 1 (2000) |
| Malaysia |
- | 1 (1996) | 3 (2000, 2004, 2007) | 1 (2002) |
 Myanmar |
- | - | - | 1 (2004) |
[edit] See also
- Squad List
- Football at the Southeast Asian Games
- AFC
- AFC Asian Cup
- East Asian Cup
- Gulf Cup of Nations
- South Asian Football Federation Cup
- West Asian Football Federation Championship
[edit] External links
- ASEAN Football Federation
- Tiger Cup at RSSSF
- Tiger Cup discussion
- Singapore Football / ASEAN Football Championship discussion
