ASEAN Region Thread

Ho Chi Minh City Football Tournament: September 20th - 24th.
Vietnam U23, Singapore U23, Syria U23 and South Korea University Team.

VFF Cup: October, 19th - 23rd.
Vietnam U23, Thailand U23, Indonesia U23, Malaysia U23.

The annual U21 tournament (Thanh Nien Newspaper) will kick off in Pleiku on September, 25th.

Group A: Vietnam U21, Malaysia U21, Aspire Academy (Qatar).
Group B: Iran U21, Thailand U21, Singapore U21.

Phnom Penh Crown crowned champions of the Cambodian C-League for the 4th time in it's 27th existence.

Previously they won their first title as Samart United in 2002, their 2nd championship in 2008 under the Phnom Penh Empire label and defended their title after winning last year aswell.

Regional U21 champs to be re-organised
VietNamNet Bridge – The Southeast Asian Under-21 Football Championship will be re-organised next year, according to the Asian Football Federation (AFF).

The event, named the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy, will be held in Brunei from February 25 to March 5.

Plans call for all 11 regional teams to take part in the fourth-edition of the competition which is a warm-up for the Asian championships in July.

"The lineup for team Viet Nam will be set early next year to prepare for the tournament. Most players will be selected from the U21 team who won the title at the Thanh Nien newspaper's international championship [early this month]," said Tran Quoc Tuan, general secretary of the Viet Nam Football Federation.

The winning team will walk away with US$15,800. Second and third place teams will receive $7,900 and $3,950, respectively.

The AFF's U21 event was first kicked off in 2005 and was expected to be organised biannually. It was interrupted when Brunei were banned by FIFA due to ‘government interference' in 2009.

At a meeting on Monday, AFF also confirmed that the Under-16 Preparatory Tournament will be hosted by Laos in 2012 in preparation for the final round of the AFC U16 Championship which will begin on September 21.

The tournament is purposely tailored for the three most qualified teams from ASEAN – Thailand, Australia and Laos – alongside one invited team from Asia.

Teams for the AFF U19 Preparatory Tournament will be announced after the results of the ASEAN qualifiers are known.

The final round of the AFC U19 Championship 2012 will be played from November 2-17.

The AFF Futsal Championship 2012 will be held sometime in March in Bangkok.

The AFF Women's Championship 2012 will be held in Viet Nam in July.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/14349/regional-u21-champs-to-be-re-organised.html

SEA games are fast approaching. Where's the trash talk? Let's go, Vietnam!

Here my friend: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1837235&page=2

Yeah, that thread has plenty of useful information. BTW, your coach has already predicted that Vietnam and Myanmar will top Group B already acc. to this article overlooking the Philippines:

http://www.philstar.com/SportsArticle.aspx?articleId=740529&publicationSubCategoryId=200

Nice to be overlooked. After all same thing happened in the Suzuki Cup. I am willing to bet our two German coaches will be shaking each other's hand after the game this time around. haha. Honestly though, great results in the VFF Cup.

Malaysian teenage prodigy attracts interest of Brazilian club Cruzeiro

After impressing during his one-month training camp with the Brazilian club, Kumaahran is set for an extended stint in 2012 after with imminent interest being shown

Source : Goal.Com
Click this link to read more :
http://www.goal.com/en/news/14/asia...eenage-prodigy-attracts-interest-of-brazilian

South-East Asians in Europe: Alfin Tuasalamony shines for CS Vise, while Chhunly Pagenburg inspires Eintracht Trier

Players from several South-East Asian nations took to the park over the weekend in Europe involving stars from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia

Source : Goal.com
Click here to read more :
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1775/as...-europe-alfin-tuasalamony-shines-for-cs-vise-

Ghost friendlies in ASEAN.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...d-by-new-gambling-phenomenon-ghost-games.html

Well, I don't know.

I think they are refering more to the U23 games that have been talked about in these forums on the SEA Games thread.

To be honest, who ever's betting on this type of game really is addicted, they won't have any backgroud behind the game and deserve to lsoe their pot of gold.

Why are FIFA concerned? The matches aren't fixed, they just aren't played.

yes mostly ASEAN U23 , U19 and one women`s match.

They are fixed , match fixers decide the result themselves and get money from the betting. Easier than bribing referees and players.

MAtch fixers control the whole match , informing the betting websites about the friendlies, giving them livescores and deciding the result and when they are going to score

I'd be pretty p!ssed off if I gambled on one of these matches to find out it's fake, but I'd be much happier knowing that since these games are fixed and are very low key anyway as you will never find out any information on the games themselves, that they are keeping 'proper' football free from match fixing.

Interesting view from Singaporean coach about Duric

http://www.tnp.sg/content/lions-coach-no-sporean-good-enough-replace-duric

Cheers

South-East Asians in Europe: Alfin Tuasalamony shines for CS Vise, while Chhunly Pagenburg inspires Eintracht Trier

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1775/as...-europe-alfin-tuasalamony-shines-for-cs-vise-

South-East Asians in Europe: Indonesian youngsters Yandi Sofyan Munawar & Alfin Tuasalamony in good shape for CS Vise

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1775/as...-asians-in-europe-indonesian-youngsters-yandi

Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group will join the Lao government to organize the Laos League

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/15899/vietnamese-businessman-invests-in-lao-football.html

SEAsian ministers welcome regional league

A proposed Southeast Asian super league has won approval of regional sports ministers, Indonesia's minister said Friday, in a move to match the sport's popularity in the bloc with stronger competition.

"It's still in early stages. We basically welcome this good idea, but there are more steps to be taken before its creation," Andi Mallarangeng told AFP.

The ministers had met earlier in the week for two-day talks in Yogyakarta on Java island to discuss the creation of the league, which will include all 10 nations from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.

"We will discuss the details at future meetings with senior officials", Mallarangeng said.

"We also need to work with the Asean Football Federation (AFF) and football associations from each member country to figure out how it would be implemented," he added.

The leaders also decided to establish a regional coordinating board to boost Southeast Asian nations' performance in international competitions.

Despite football's massive popularity in Southeast Asia, the region's national teams fare poorly with Thailand, its top-ranked team, sitting 120th in the FIFA world ratings.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=afp-fbl_asia_ina_asean_20111216

They have been discussing this idea in Asean football circles on and off for some time now. Because of fixture congestion with their own domestic league competition as well as AFC Club tournament competitions, they have always have had a hard time trying to implement this. It is good that they are becoming serious about it, but I will only believe it will happen when they actually announce the schedules. It certainly will benefit particularly the emerging nations like the Philippines, Brunei, and Timor Leste because of their lack of exposure to international club competition.

Apparently they are going to pattern it after the successful ASEAN Basketball League as this article suggests:

Regional sports ministers accept proposal for ASEAN Football League
Share
By Les Tan/Red Sports
Yogyakarta, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 — Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) sports ministers have accepted a Malaysian proposal to form an ASEAN football league, according to bernama.com.
The league is to feature leading football club teams from all ASEAN countries.
A meeting of ASEAN football league chief executive officers will be held on January 14th and 15th in Kuala Lumpur to discuss implementation.
Currently, the only professional ASEAN sports league is the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) which is heading into its third season in January 2012.
The Malaysian sports minister, Ahmad Shabery Cheek, believes there is economic potential in an ASEAN football league.
“Once football becomes a sport that can produce millionaires, it can become a much sought after career and parents can decide to send their children to professional football academies, just like in Europe and other developed countries,” bernama.com quoted him as saying.
Aside from the South-east Asian (SEA) Games and the ABL, the only other pan-ASEAN sports competition is the ASEAN Football Championship. The organisers, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), have managed to get sponsorship for the tournament since the first edition in 1996.
Suzuki Motor Corporation recently renewed its title sponsorship of the championship for 2012 in a deal that was sealed by World Sport Group, the exclusive marketing partner of the AFF.
The 2012 championship will be the third consecutive edition that will have Suzuki as the title sponsor. Previous editions were sponsored by Tiger Beer.
The Suzuki Cup is Southeast Asia’s biggest football event. A record 192 million television viewers in ASEAN markets watched the 2010 edition along with nearly 800,000 fans who attended the matches live.
“I am pleased that Suzuki has chosen to renew its partnership with the AFF to bring the biggest and most exciting sporting event to the region,” said HRH Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, president of the AFF. “The 2010 edition was the most successful since the inauguration of the tournament and clearly managed to ignite the passions and imagination of the millions of football fans in Southeast Asia.”
Following the official draw scheduled to be held next year on July 11th, a qualifying round will be held in Myanmar from October 5th to 13th to determine the two teams which will join defending champions Malaysia and top seeds Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in the final field of eight nations.
The 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup will be held from November 24th to December 22nd. Malaysia and Thailand will co-host the group stage matches. The semi-finals and final matches will be played on a home-and-away basis.

http://redsports.sg/2011/12/15/regional-sports-ministers-proposal-asean-football-league/

Hey peeps,

Does anyone know of any pubs with Arsenal fans in Bangkok, Thailand?

Cheers!

South-East Asians in Europe: Indonesia's Stefano Lilipaly continues a good run for FC Utrecht, while Philippines' Stephan Shrock scores again for Greuther Furth
Players from several South-East Asian nations took to the field over the weekend in Europe including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1775/as...-asians-in-europe-indonesias-stefano-lilipaly

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) said today it had fired German coach Falko Goetz, deemed responsible for the failure of the national team at the Southeast Asian Games last month.

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/n...tt=&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

South-East Asia nations to organise Asean Club Championship
All of South-East Asia countries have expressed their enthusiasm to compete in this major regional club competition, but there are still details to be ironed out

Feb 8, 2012 10:14:00 AM
By Eric Noveanto

The eagerness of the South-East Asian football community, especially Indonesia, to have a competition which involves all clubs from the region is likely to be fulfilled in the near future.

Bob Hippy, a member of the executive committee of Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) explained that this agenda is a follow-up from a meeting between sports ministers of Asean, which was held in Yogyakarta last year.

"We are discussing and finalising the format of this competition," Hippy told reporters.

Hippy added, the main purpose of this competition is to improve the quality of South-East Asian football, and he also revealed the details of the tournament format and how it will be run.

"In this competition, each country is only represented by one club. The format will use a system of home and away."

However, no final decision about the competition format has been made yet because there is a discourse to invite clubs from Japan and Australia.

Previously, similar tournaments have been held in 2003 and 2005 but failed to continue due to a fixture clash with the AFC calendar and lack of sponsors.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1276/so...a-nations-to-organise-asean-club-championship

ASEAN Club Championship - rumours coming out of Thailand is that it is expected to happen later this year with Laos as host. Confusion as always. Earlier report of home and away ties, now single host.

And we ahev the AFF national team championship this year aswell. When to fit it all in?

Report: Indonesian football to lose funding

Updated Mar 7, 2012 7:30 AM ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)

The Indonesian government reportedly plans to strip funding for its national football association after a series of scandals - including a 10-0 loss to Bahrain that led to an investigation into what FIFA called an ''unusual outcome.''

The loss to Bahrain in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match was the biggest in the national team's history, and much of the blame fell on the association (PSSI), which has been in turmoil for years.

Without a cash injection, it will likely descend further into crisis.

''We have no choice since it looks like the PSSI's infighting won't be ending anytime soon,'' Andi Mallarangeng, the minister of youth and sports, was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

''It was not the country's best squad that was humiliated by Bahrain last week. It was a team assembled under the shadow of discrimination, as the PSSI only called up players from a certain league.''

Until things change, he said, funding will stop.

''I think the funding termination is reasonable owing to their bad performances so far,'' Bernard Limbong, a spokesman for the Indian football federation, told Antara news agency. ''The policy is expected to improve the performance of the national teams.''

The announcement came after FIFA, football's world governing body, announced last week it was launching an investigation into the ''unusual outcome'' of Bahrain's win.

Bahrain needed to make up a nine-goal deficit on Qatar in the group standings to have a chance of advancing to the next round.

It also needed Qatar to lose its last match, but the Qataris scored an 83rd-minute equalizer in a 2-2 draw at Iran to instead reach the next stage of the Asian qualifying tournament.

''The important thing is that if there are suspicions you have to investigate it,'' FIFA vice president Prince Ali said during a trip to London. ''It might just be a coincidence. However, there might be something behind it.''

Indonesia's performance has been abysmal.

It had lost all five previous group matches, conceding 16 goals while scoring just three. It also fielded several inexperienced international players in Bahrain after suspending others who play for clubs in the breakaway Indonesian Super League.

The Indonesian football association recognizes the Indonesian Premier League, and the dispute jeopardized the participation of ISL winner Persipura Jayapura in the Asian Champions League last month. Persipura required a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in order to face Adelaide United in the continental club competition.

The PSSI launched an unsuccessful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, but FIFA removed Indonesia from the contest midway through the bid process when football officials failed to persuade the government to provide hosting guarantees.

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/socce....unding-95140655

Here are some news on the Asean Club Championship in Laos:

Saturday, 10 March 2012
Port to get ASEAN Club Championship invite?
It is being reported in the local press that Thai Port and Muangthong United could be asked to represent Thailand in the 2012 ASEAN Club Championship. Thai FA secretary general Ong-art Korshinika is quoted as saying that Buriram United (TPL, FA Cup and League Cup winners) and Chonburi (TPL runners-up) are unlikely to be invited, due to their AFC Champions League and AFC Cup commitments. Therefore, Thai Port (League Cup runners-up) and Muangthong United (TPL third place) are the next in line to be asked.

The Championships will take place in Laos later this year, after a seven-year hiatus. The old competition format was similar to that of the AFC Cup. Teams were split into groups of four, with the winners and runners-up of each group qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament. Whether the format will be re-jigged in 2012 remains to be seen. For the record, the reigning champions are S-League side Tampines Rovers.

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Does anybody know when exactly this year they are planning to have this tournament?

If they are going to be doing this, then I would suggest that they do it in the years that they aren't hosting a international championsip like they are this year!!!

If Thai teams are playing, it would have to be in the mid season break - July time - or end of season, October/November.

I would suggest to ASEAN region to make this championship have champions in the future then ask AFC to use this as a regional qualifier for berths to the ACL. What's the point of an ASEAN Club championship if Thailand are sending teams that didn't win anything? It's just a glorified friendly kickabout isn't it?