SE Asia to have champion club soccer tournament

SE Asia to have champion club soccer tournament

SINGAPORE (AFP): Southeast Asia is to launch its own champion
of champions club soccer tournament, starting next year in
Vietnam and drawing together the top sides from the 10 ASEAN
nations.

The club tournament will be held biennially, alternating with
the Tiger Cup for national supremacy in the region, ASEAN
Football Federation (AFF) council member P. Sivakumar said in the
Straits Times Friday.

Champion sides from the 10 Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) countries will be seeded into two groups, and
after a league-style round of matches the top two teams in each
group will go through to the semifinals.

Two foreign players will be allowed per team in the group
round, and up to three foreigners will be allowed for the
semifinals and final.

Sivakumar said each of the 10 soccer associations in the
region would soon be sent a questionnaire about the make-up of
their respective leagues and the replies would be used to
determine seedings.

"Obviously, we don't want teams from Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand and Indonesia to be in the same group," he said.

While some nations such as Singapore have professional
leagues, others like Cambodia has only an amateur league while
Brunei has no league at all and plays in Malaysia.

"The idea behind this championship is to allow clubs in our
region a chance to develop against other ASEAN teams before
playing the bigger boys in Asian Football Confederation
competitions, like the Asian club championships and Cup-Winners'
Cup," AFF competitions director Windsor Paul said.

The inaugural tournament will be played in Vietnam from Oct.
30 to Nov. 10 next year, the Straits Times said.