2020 AFF Championship

2020 AFF Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Singapore
Dates	5 December 2021 – 1 January 2022
Teams	10 (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Thailand (6th title)
Runners-up	Indonesia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	88 (3.38 per match)
Attendance	104,143 (4,006 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Safawi Rasid Bienvenido Marañón Chanathip Songkrasin Teerasil Dangda (4 goals each)
Best player(s)	Chanathip Songkrasin
Best young player	Pratama Arhan
Fair play award	Indonesia
← 2018 2022 →

The 2020 AFF Championship (officially AFF Suzuki Cup 2020^[1] for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), the 7th and the last edition under the name AFF Suzuki Cup.^[2]

The final tournament was originally scheduled to run from 23 November to 31 December 2020.^[3] However the tournament was postponed and rescheduled at least twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the tournament was first rescheduled to run from 11 April to 8 May 2021^[4] and the schedule later pushed backed further to 5 December 2021 to 1 January 2022.^[5] Singapore later was chosen for host this tournament in a centralized venue.^[6]

Vietnam were the defending champions, but were eliminated by its rivals, Thailand in the semi-finals. Thailand won the tournament by a 6–2 victory in the two-legged final against Indonesia to secure their sixth title.^[7][8]

The AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 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.^[6] Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam also expressed interest in hosting the tournament.^{[9][10][11][12]}

In the group stage of the competition proper, ten teams were drawn in two groups of five with single round-robin format. The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

The organizers preferred to hold the tournament under its original format, which featured two-leg home-and-away games.^[4] Away goals rule wouldn't be applied.

Up to five substitutions may be allowed as per recommendation of FIFA.^[13]

Nine teams automatically qualified to the AFF Championship final tournament; they were separated into their respective pots based on their performance of the last two editions. Brunei and Timor-Leste who were the two lowest-performing teams were supposed to play a match where the winner will secure a spot to the final tournament but Brunei withdrew citing the COVID-19 pandemic.^[14] Australia applied to attend the 2020 AFF Championship but was rejected by the AFF.^[15]

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.^[16][17]

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
Cambodia	8th	Group Stage (1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2018)
Indonesia[a]	13th	Runners-up (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016)
Laos	12th	Group Stage (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018)
Malaysia	13th	Winners (2010)
Myanmar	13th	Fourth place / Semi-finalists (2004, 2016)
Philippines	12th	Semi-finalists (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018)
Singapore	13th	Winners (1998, 2004, 2007, 2012)
Thailand[a]	13th	Winners (1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016) 2020) 2022)
East Timor	3rd	Group Stage (2004, 2018)
Vietnam	13th	Winners (2008, 2018)

Notes

The draw for the 2020 AFF Championship was originally set to be held on 10 August 2021^[20] in Singapore but due to the enhanced COVID-19 restrictions in the country, the draw was postponed.^[21] The draw was done virtually and held on 21 September 2021.^[12][22] The pot placements followed each teams progress in the previous two editions.^[23]

At the time of the draw, the identity of the national team that secured qualification was unknown, as it was supposed to be contested between Brunei and Timor Leste. Timor Leste qualified to the group stage after the withdrawal of Brunei from the qualification play-off.^[24]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
Vietnam (2018 holders)  Thailand	Malaysia  Myanmar	Philippines  Indonesia	Singapore  Cambodia	Laos  East Timor (Qualification round winner)

Each team were allowed a preliminary squad of 50 players. A final squad of 30 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) 23 players registered for each match.^{[citation needed]}

The following officials were chosen for the competition.

Referees

Assistant referees

Singapore
Kallang Bishan class=notpageimage| Location of stadiums of the 2020 AFF Championship	Kallang	Bishan
	National Stadium	Bishan Stadium
	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 6,254

Tiebreakers

Ranking in each group shall be determined as follows:

1. Greater number of points obtained in all the group matches;
2. Goal difference in all the group matches;
3. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches.

If two or more teams are equal on the basis on the above three criteria, the place shall be determined as follows:

1. Result of the direct match between the teams concerned;
2. Penalty shoot-out if only the teams are tied, and they met in the last round of the group;
3. Drawing lots by the Organising Committee.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Thailand	4	4	0	0	10	1	+9	12	Advance to semi-finals
2	Singapore (H)	4	3	0	1	7	3	+4	9
3	Philippines	4	2	0	2	12	6	+6	6
4	Myanmar	4	1	0	3	4	10	−6	3
5	East Timor	4	0	0	4	0	13	−13	0

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Indonesia	4	3	1	0	13	4	+9	10	Advance to semi-finals
2	Vietnam	4	3	1	0	9	0	+9	10
3	Malaysia	4	2	0	2	8	8	0	6
4	Cambodia	4	1	0	3	6	11	−5	3
5	Laos	4	0	0	4	1	14	−13	0

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	Semi-finals							Finals
	A2	Singapore	1	2	3
	B1	Indonesia[b] (a.e.t.)	1	4	5
								B1	Indonesia[b]	0	2	2
								A1	Thailand[a]	4	2	6
	B2	Vietnam	0	0	0
	A1	Thailand[a]	2	0	2

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Singapore	3–5	Indonesia[b]	1–1	2–4 (a.e.t.)
Vietnam	0–2	Thailand[a]	0–2	0–0

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Indonesia won 5–3 on aggregate.

Thailand won 2–0 on aggregate.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Indonesia [b]	2–6	Thailand[a]	0–4	2–2

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Thailand won 6–2 on aggregate.

2020 AFF Championship
Thailand 6th title

Most Valuable Player[25]	Young Player of the Tournament[25]	Top Scorer Award[25]	Fair Play Award[25]
Chanathip Songkrasin	Pratama Arhan	Safawi Rasid Bienvenido Marañón Chanathip Songkrasin Teerasil Dangda	Indonesia

There were 88 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 3.38 goals per match.

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: AFF

In the final tournament, a player was suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches.

Player	Offences	Suspensions
Ken Chansopheak	in Group B v Malaysia in Group B v Vietnam	Team already eliminated from tournament
Ramai Rumakiek	in Group B v Cambodia in Group B v Malaysia	Semi-finals 1st-leg v Singapore
Pratama Arhan	in Semi-finals 1st-leg v Singapore in Semi-finals 2nd-leg v Singapore	Finals 1st-leg v Thailand
Aphixay Thanakhanty	in Group B v Malaysia in Group B v Indonesia	Group B v Cambodia
Nyein Chan	in Group A v Singapore in Group A v Philippines	Team already eliminated from tournament
Stephan Schröck	in Group A v Singapore in Group A v Thailand	Group A v Myanmar
Martin Steuble	in Group A v Thailand in Group A v Myanmar	Team already eliminated from tournament
Safuwan Baharudin	in Semi-finals 1st-leg v Indonesia   in Semi-finals 2nd-leg v Indonesia	Team already eliminated from tournament
Irfan Fandi	in Semi-finals 2nd-leg v Indonesia	Team already eliminated from tournament
Hassan Sunny	in Semi-finals 2nd-leg v Indonesia	Team already eliminated from tournament
Theerathon Bunmathan	in Semi-finals 1st leg v Vietnam in Semi-finals 2nd-leg v Vietnam	Finals 1st-leg v Indonesia

In addition, 4 Indonesian players (Elkan Baggott, Victor Igbonefo, Rizky Ridho and Rizky Dwi Febrianto) were barred from the 2nd leg of the Indonesia-Thailand Final on 1 January 2022 for breaching COVID-19 safety measures by leaving the team hotel without authorisation.^[26]

This table will show the ranking of teams throughout the tournament.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1	Thailand	8	6	2	0	18	3	+15	20	Champion
2	Indonesia	8	4	3	1	20	13	+7	15	Runner-up
3	Vietnam	6	3	2	1	9	2	+7	11	Semi-final
4	Singapore	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10
5	Philippines	4	2	0	2	12	6	+6	6	Eliminated in group stage
6	Malaysia	4	2	0	2	8	8	0	6
7	Cambodia	4	1	0	3	6	11	−5	3
8	Myanmar	4	1	0	3	4	10	−6	3
9	Laos	4	0	0	4	1	14	−13	0
10	East Timor	4	0	0	4	0	13	−13	0

The official ball for AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 is the ASEAN PULSE,^[27] which is sponsored by Warrix.^[28]

Title sponsor	Official sponsors	Official supporters
Suzuki[29][30]	Oppo[29][31] Bioré[29] G-Shock[29][32] Midea[29][33] Yanmar[34]	Acecook[29] Coocaa[29][35] Fuji Electric[29][36] Herbalife Nutrition[29][37] Jinro[29][38] Mitsubishi Electric[29][39] Pinaco[29][40] TMGM[29][41]

2020 AFF Championship television broadcasters in Southeast Asia
Country	Broadcast network	Television	Radio	Streaming
Brunei	RTB	RTB Aneka	—	—
Cambodia	Smart Axiata[42]	Hang Meas HDTV[42]
Indonesia	MNC Media, Emtek	RCTI (Indonesian matches only), iNews (FTA), Champions TV [id] (Pay)[43]		RCTI+ [id], Vision+, Vidio
Laos	Next Media
Malaysia	Astro, RTM	Astro Arena, Sukan RTM
Myanmar	Next Media
Philippines	TAP DMV	Premier Sport (Pay)		TAP Go
Singapore	Mediacorp			meWATCH
Thailand	BBTV	CH7		Bugaboo, AIS Play
East Timor	RTTL	TVTL
Vietnam	VTV,[42] Next Media	VTV5, VTV6[42]	On 365 FM	TV360, VTVcab ON, FPT Play
2020 AFF Championship international television broadcasters
International	YouTube			AFF Suzuki Cup (unsold markets only)
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Cable Television		—
South Korea	Seoul Broadcasting System	SBS, SBS Sports (Indonesian and Vietnamese matches only)[44][45]	—

Sources

• Thailand: "Thailand loses right to host tournaments". Bangkok Post. Bangkok Post Public Co. Ltd. Retrieved 25 November 2021. The country has also been denied the right to display its national flag at any such events (international football events)."WADA confirms non-compliance of five Anti-Doping Organizations (7 October 2021)". World Anti-Doping Agency. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
• Indonesia: "Chairman Of PSSI: Regarding The Flag At AFF 2020, We Will Follow Whatever The Decision Is". VOI. 24 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021."WADA confirms non-compliance of five Anti-Doping Organizations (7 October 2021)". World Anti-Doping Agency. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

• AFF Suzuki Cup Official website
• ASEAN Federation Official website