The 2024 ASEAN Championship (officially the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the ASEAN Championship (formerly the AFF Championship) football tournament of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the last edition sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric.
The final tournament was originally scheduled to run from 23 November to 21 December. However, the AFF decided to change the schedule from 8 December 2024 to 5 January 2025 to avoid conflicts with continental club competitions.
Vietnam secured their third title after defeating the two-time defending champions Thailand by a 5–3 aggregate score in the two-legged final.
Format The 2024 ASEAN Championship will follow format since 2018. In the current format, the nine highest ranked teams would automatically qualify, with the 10th and 11th ranked teams playing a two-legged qualifiers. The 10 teams would be split in two groups of five and play a round robin system with each team playing two home and two away fixtures. The top two sides of each group will advance to the knockout stages consisting of two-legged semi-finals and finals. Away goals rule would not be applied for the first time since 2010.
Qualification
Nine teams automatically qualified to the ASEAN Championship final tournament. They were separated in respective pots, based on performance of the last two editions.
Brunei and East Timor, who were two lowest-performing teams, played a two-legged qualifier to determine the 10th and final qualifier. On 15 October 2024, East Timor beat Brunei by 1–0 on aggregate to become the last participant.
Australia, a member since 2013, did not enter the tournament, due to restriction imposed by the AFF.
Qualified teams TeamAppearance Previous best performance 10thGroup stage (1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 15thRunners-up (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2020) 14thGroup stage (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2022) 15thWinners (2010) 15thFourth place / Semi-finalists (2004, 2016) 14thSemi-finalists (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018) 15thWinners (1998, 2004, 2007, 2012) 15thWinners (1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022) 4thGroup stage (2004, 2018, 2020) 15thWinners (2008, 2018)
Draw The tournament's official draw was held on 21 May 2024 in Hanoi, Vietnam at 14:00 (GMT+07:00). The pot placements followed each team's progress based on the two previous editions. If the results are equal, the most recent tournament will be given priority.
At the time of the draw, the identity of the team that secured qualification was unknown and was automatically placed into Pot 5. +Ranking in the two previous tournamentsPotsTeams202220201111232.52423364.53544.57564676.5888599910n/a
Squads
Schedule All matches were played from 8 December 2024 to 5 January 2025.
Group stage rowspan="2" Group AGroup BDateMatchesDateMatchesMatchday 18 December 20244 v 25 v 19 December 20244 v 25 v 1Matchday 211 December 20242 v 53 v 412 December 20242 v 53 v 4Matchday 314 December 20245 v 31 v 215 December 20245 v 31 v 2Matchday 417 December 20243 v 14 v 518 December 20243 v 14 v 5Matchday 520 December 20241 v 42 v 321 December 20241 v 42 v 3Knockout stageSemi-finals DateMatches DateMatchesFirst leg26 December 2024A2 v B127 December 2024B2 v A1Second leg29 December 2024B1 v A230 December 2024A1 v B2Finals DateMatchesFirst leg2 January 2025SF Winner 1 v SF Winner 2Second leg5 January 2025SF Winner 2 v SF Winner 1
Officiating On 4 July 2024, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) has officially confirmed the comprehensive use of video assistant referee (VAR) technology during the tournament. To ensure uniformity and professionalism, the VAR system will be managed by a third-party provider rather than utilising the resources available in member countries. For the group stage matches, 10 cameras will be deployed to capture the action, with the number increasing to 12 cameras starting from the semifinals. This initiative marks the first time VAR was used in the senior ASEAN Championship and only the second time it was used in an AFF tournament after the 2024 U-19 Boys Championship.
List of officials The following officials were chosen for the competition.
Referees
Ismaeel Habib Ali Tam Ping Wun Wong Wai Lun Hiroki Kasahara Hiroyuki Kimura Koki Nagamine Koji Takasaki Ryo Tanimoto Ahmed Faisal Al-Ali Omar Al-Yaqoubi Salman Ahmad Falahi Kim Dae-yong Kim Woo-sung Ko Hyung-jin Mohammed Al-Hoaish Abdullah Dhafer Al-Shehri Rustam Lutfullin Firdaus Norsafarov Akobirxuja Shukurullaev
Assistant referees
Salah Abdulaziz Janahi Faisal Alawi Sayed Lam Nai Kei Sam So Kai Man Wong Ping Chung Nurhadi Sulchan Bambang Syamsudar Takeshi Asada Jun Mihara Isao Nishihashi Takumi Takagi Yosuke Takebe Tomoyuki Umeda Kota Watanabe Hamamoto Yusuke Ayman Faisal Hamzeh Obeidat Ahmad Mansour Samara Muhsen Mohd Yusri Muhammad Abu Bakar Khalid Ayed Zahy Al-Shmari Cheon Jin-Hee Jeon Jin-hee Kang Dong-ho Kwak Seung-soon Park Sang-jun Yoon Jae-yeol Ibrahim Al-Dakhil Saad Al-Subaie Khalaf Al-Shammari Saad Saud Abdul Hannan Abdul Hasim Supawan Hinthong Warintorn Sassadee Bakhtiyorkhuja Shavkatov Sanjar Shayusupov Timur Gaynulin Andrey Tsapenko Alisher Usmonov Nguyễn Trung Hậu Nguyễn Trung Việt
Fourth officials
Thoriq Alkatiri Yudi Nurcahya Ryan Saputra Mohd Kamil Zakaria Ismail Nazmi Nasaruddin Muhammad Usaid Jamal Razlan Joffri Ali Tuan Mohd Yaasin Tuan Mohd Hanafiah Ahmad A'Qashah Foo Chuan Hui Apichit Nophuan Mongkolchai Pechsri Pansa Chaisanit Songkran Bunmeekiart Wiwat Jumpa-on Firdaus Norsafarov Hoàng Ngọc Hà Lê Vũ Linh Ngô Duy Lân Nguyễn Mạnh Hải
Video Assistant officials
Du Jianxin Choi Hyun-jai Mohammed Khled Sal Al-Hoish Mamdouh Mufareh Al-Shahdan Muhammad Taqi Sivakorn Pu-udom
Venues Kuala Lumpur Singapore BangkokBukit Jalil National StadiumNational StadiumJalan Besar StadiumRajamangala StadiumCapacity: 87,500Capacity: 55,000Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 51,560 Yangon Phnom PenhThuwunna StadiumOlympic StadiumCapacity: 50,000Capacity: 50,000 Vientiane HanoiNew Laos National StadiumHàng Đẫy StadiumCapacity: 25,000Capacity: 22,500 Việt Trì Surakarta ManilaViệt Trì StadiumManahan StadiumRizal Memorial StadiumCapacity: 20,000Capacity: 20,000Capacity: 12,880
Group stage
Tiebreakers Ranking in each group shall be determined as follows: Greater number of points obtained in all the group matches; Goal difference in all the group matches; 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: Result of the direct match between the teams concerned; Penalty shoot-out if only the teams are tied, and they met in the last round of the group; Drawing lots by the Organising Committee.
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage
Bracket
Semi-finals
First leg
Second leg
Vietnam won 5–1 on aggregate.
Thailand won 4–3 on aggregate.
Final
First leg
Second leg
Vietnam won 5–3 on aggregate.
Statistics Winner 2024 ASEAN ChampionshipThird title
Awards Best goalkeeperMVPBest young playerTop scorer Nguyễn Đình Triệu Nguyễn Xuân Son Suphanat Mueanta Nguyễn Xuân Son
Goalscorers
Discipline In the tournament, a player will be suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches.
PlayerOffense(s)Suspension(s) Peeradon Chamratsamee in 2022 final 2nd leg v Vietnam Group A v East Timor (8 December 2024) Wai Lin Aung in Group B v Indonesia in Group B v PhilippinesGroup B v Laos (18 December 2024) Marselino Ferdinan in Group B v LaosGroup B v Vietnam (15 December 2024) Phathana Phommathep in Group B v Indonesia in Group B v PhilippinesGroup B v Myanmar (18 December 2024) Yudai Ogawa in Group A v Singapore in Group A v East TimorGroup A v Thailand (20 December 2024) Maung Maung Lwin in Group B v Indonesia in Group B v LaosGroup B v Vietnam (21 December 2024) Amani Aguinaldo in Group B v Indonesia in Group B v VietnamSemi-finals v Thailand (27 December 2024)
Tournament teams ranking This table will show the ranking of teams throughout the tournament.
Marketing Official match ball The tournament's official match ball, Adidas Tiro Pro, was unveiled on 14 August 2024. This marks the return of Adidas as the ASEAN Championship Official Supplier after 20 years.
Sponsorship Title PartnerPresenting PartnersOfficial SponsorsOfficial Performance Partner Mitsubishi Electric MSIG Shopee ALL - Accor Live Limitless Acecook Vietnam AirAsia Amartha Pocari Sweat Yanmar Adidas
Media coverage 2024 ASEAN Championship television broadcasters in Southeast Asia Country Broadcasting networks Television Radio Live streaming RTB, Astro RTB Aneka, Astro Arena RTBGo, Astro GO, Sooka Bayon Television BTV Cambodia MNC Media RCTI, GTV, iNews, Soccer Channel, Sportstars MNC Trijaya FM Vision+, Blive BG Sports Co. colspan="2" BG SPORTS Astro Astro Arena Astro GO, Sooka Sky Net Sky Net Sports HD, Sky Net Sports 4 colspan="2" TAP DMV Premier Football and Sports channels Matchday+ Mediacorp CH5 meWATCH Triple V Broadcast Co., Ltd., BG Sports Co., AIS Play, Kong Salak Plus, TrueVisions, beIN Sports Thairath TV, True Sports 2, True Sports 7, beIN Sports 1, beIN Sports 2 Youtube: THAIRATH TV Originals Thairath Sport BG SPORTS Facebook: ThairathTV Thairath Sport BG Sports Nok Plus Online Platforms: AIS Play, TrueVisions Now FPT Play, VTV VTV2, VTV5, VTV Cần Thơ FPT Play, VTVgo 2024 ASEAN Championship international television broadcasters Rest of World YouTube ASEAN United FC Leisu Leisu Sports Channel Leisu TV Eclat Media SPOTV SPOTV Now
Incidents Hooligan fans problem
On 20 December 2024, following the end of the Group A match between Malaysia and Singapore at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur with subsequent Malaysia elimination, a group of Malaysian fans were seen holding the Singapore flag upside down with middle fingers pointed to it to show their disrespect against the Singapore team. The Bandar Tasik Selatan LRT station was then targeted and damaged by the group. Earlier, a clash between Malaysian and Thai hooligan fans also broken out outside Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok after Malaysia's match against Thailand on 14 December, in which a Malaysian fan was reportedly injured in the head, while another report suggests three Malaysian fans were injured.
Criticism of officiating referees conduct During the 2nd leg semi-finals match between the Philippines and Thailand at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, the Thai side missed out on two penalty kicks when two Filipino players committed handball in the penalty area, but the Japanese referee who officiated the match, Kimura Hiroyuki, still allowed the game to continue without checking on the video assistant referee (VAR). Later during the build-up to Thailand's goal on the 37th minute, it appeared as though the ball was already out of bounds before it was shifted back in by Seksan Ratree, who crossed it into the box for Peeradol Chamrasamee. The goal stood through the decision of referee, despite protests from the Philippine side.
There were incidents where VAR should have interrupted the match, including red card protest following a foul in the 4th minute from Phạm Tuấn Hải's aggressive tackle against Jonathan Khemdee, this occurred just before Tuấn Hải scored for Vietnam later in the 8th minute. There was also a handball incident outside the penalty box by goalkeeper Nguyễn Đình Triệu interrupting goal scoring opportunity for Suphanat Mueanta in the 62nd minute. VAR had checked the penalty possibility in the 85th minute following the tackle by Phạm Xuân Mạnh against Suphanan Bureerat inside the penalty area.