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. The competition is sponsored by Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, makers of Tiger Beer. Since it was inaugurated in 1996, the cup has been won three times by Thailand, and twice by Singapore. Indonesia have been runners-up three times, but have never won the cup. Malaysia and Vietnam have also been runners-up once each. The Tiger Cup was renamed as ASEAN Football Championship and used first time in 2007 ASEAN Football Championship.

1 Tournaments
- 1.1 1996
- 1.2 1998
- 1.3 2000
- 1.4 2002
- 1.5 2004
- 1.6 2007
2 Results
- 2.1 Per tournament
- 2.2 Per country
3 See also
4 External links

[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, 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. 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.

[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.

[edit] 2004

Main article: 2004 Tiger Cup

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.

[edit] 2007

Main article: 2007 ASEAN Football Championship

The next Tiger Cup has been renamed as the ASEAN Football Championship. This is due to the cup's main sponsor, Tiger Beer, not continuing their title sponsorship.

The 2007 ASEAN Cup will be co-hosted by two time winners and defending champions Singapore and three time champions, Thailand.

To date, the two hosts are the only two teams that have won the championship.

The qualifying round for the lower ranked teams in ASEAN 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 are 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, will advance to the final tournament in 2007 with Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia.

[edit] Results

[edit] Per tournament

The team that is italicized indicates the home team, for the final that is played over two legs (starting from the 2004 final).

Year	Host/s	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1996 Details	Singapore	Thailand	1-0	Malaysia
1998 Details	Vietnam	Singapore	1-0	Vietnam
2000 Details	Thailand	Thailand	4-1	Indonesia
2002 Details	Indonesia Singapore	Thailand	2-2 (aet) 4-2 (pso)	Indonesia
2004 Details	Vietnam Malaysia	Singapore	3-1	Indonesia
		Singapore	2-1	Indonesia
		Singapore won 5-2 on aggregate.
2007 Details	Thailand Singapore	To be decided