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.