The 2026 ASEAN Championship (officially the ASEAN Hyundai Cup 2026 for sponsorship reasons), or simply ASEAN Cup 2026, was the 16th edition of the ASEAN Championship, the biennal international men's football championship of Southeast Asia organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the 1st edition under the name ASEAN Hyundai Cup. The tournament was celebrated as the 30th anniversary of the competition.
The event was held in the summer season from July to August for the first time, instead of the traditional monsoon season near the year-end. The defending champions Vietnam defeated Thailand 4–2 by aggregate in the finals.
It precedes the inaugural 2026 FIFA ASEAN Cup, first announced by FIFA in October 2025.
Format The 2026 ASEAN Championship follows the current 2018 format. In the current format, the nine highest ranked teams automatically qualified, with the 10th and 11th ranked teams playing in a two-legged qualifier. The 10 teams will 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, like the previous edition.
New rules The 2026 ASEAN Championship introduced several rule changes just like the 2026 FIFA World Cup, primarily designed to reduce time-wasting.
The new rules include: 10-second substitutions: Players being substituted had ten seconds to exit the field; otherwise, the substitute had to wait for one minute before entering the match. 5-second restarts: A visual 5-second countdown shown by the referee for throw-ins and goal kicks in situations of time-wasting. If the ball was not put into play in time, a restart was awarded to the opposing team; a corner kick was awarded if the infraction occurred with a goal kick. Medical treatment: Any outfield player who received medical attention on the field has to wait for 1 minute before returning to play. Expanded video assistant referee (VAR): The VAR could review and overturn wrongly awarded corner kicks, certain attacking fouls, and mistakes on cards. Mouth-covering red cards: To stop confrontational or insulting behavior which was concealed to avoid lip-reading, any player who covered his mouth with his hand, arm, or shirt while confronting an opponent was sent off. Player leaving the field in protest: Players or officials who left the field in protest were sent off.
Another change was the tiebreaker formula used when two or more teams finish the group stage with an equal number of points. The first tiebreaker criterion was the number of points earned in head-to-head matches between the tied teams, not the goal difference among all matches.
Qualification
Nine teams automatically qualified to the ASEAN Championship final tournament. They were separated in respective pots, based on their performance in the last two editions.
Brunei and East Timor, the two lowest-ranked teams, played a two-legged qualifier to determine the 10th and final qualifier. On 9 June 2026, East Timor beat Brunei by 6–1 on aggregate to become the last participant.
Australia, a member since 2013, did not enter the tournament.
Qualified teams
TeamAppearance Previous best performance FIFA Ranking (20 July 2026) 11thGroup stage (1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024)175 16thRunners-up (2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2020)118 15thGroup stage (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024)185 16thWinners (2010)136 16thFourth place / Semi-finalists (2004, 2016)158 15thSemi-finalists (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2024)135 16thWinners (1998, 2004, 2007, 2012)148 16thWinners (1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022)94 16thWinners (2008, 2018, 2024)99 5thGroup stage (2004, 2018, 2020, 2024)201
Draw The tournament's draw was held on 15 January 2026 at RCTI studio in Jakarta, Indonesia at 16:00 UTC+7 (WIB).
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.
Vietnam, the defending champions, were automatically placed in A1, while Thailand were placed in B1. Due to political tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, Cambodia and Thailand cannot be drawn against each other. Consequently, Cambodia was automatically drawn to Group A and Myanmar to Group B.
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 tournamentsPotsTeams202420221121.5211.52534454.53375745.54666888599910n/a
Squads
Schedule AFF announced the tournament schedule on 14 November 2025. The group stage starts from 24 July to 8 August. The knockout stage take place from 15 to 26 August.
Group stage rowspan="2" Group AGroup BDateMatchesDateMatchesMatchday 124 July 20264 v 25 v 125 July 20264 v 25 v 1Matchday 227 July 20262 v 53 v 428 July 20262 v 53 v 4Matchday 331 July 20265 v 31 v 21 August 20265 v 31 v 2Matchday 43 August 20263 v 14 v 54 August 20263 v 14 v 5Matchday 57 August 20261 v 42 v 38 August 20261 v 42 v 3Knockout stageSemi-finals DateMatches DateMatchesFirst leg15 August 2026A2 v B116 August 2026B2 v A1Second leg18 August 2026B1 v A219 August 2026A1 v B2Finals DateMatchesFirst leg22 August 2026SF Winner 1 v SF Winner 2Second leg26 August 2026SF Winner 2 v SF Winner 1
List of officials The following officials were chosen for the competition.
Referees
Tim Danaskos Jin Jingyuan Mario Cheung Wai Lung Hiroki Kasahara Koji Takasaki Yusuke Ohashi Alimardon Bainazarov Abdullah Salim Khalfan Al-Amouri Mahmood Al-Majarafi Zakaria Ismail Salman Falahi Sami Al-Ismail Ahmed Eisa Darwish Choi Hyun-jai Kim Hee-gon Kim Woo-sung Rustam Lutfullin
Assistant referees
Andrew Meimarakis Brad Wright Tang Chao Lam Cheuk Hong Bangbang Syamsudar Fajar Furqon Nurhadi Sulchan Masaru Hasegawa Takeshi Asada Tomoyuki Umeda Satoshi Michiyama Yusuke Takebe İsmailjan Talipjanov Hamed Talib Saif Al Ghafri Nasser Salim Abdullah Ambusaidi Kesava Raj Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafiq bin Ahmad Said Zainal Abidin Zahy Snaid Al Shammari Hesham Mohammed Abdullah Al Refaei Saad Al-Subaiee Yaser Sabeil Almurshidi Saeed Rashed Almarzooqi Abdul Hannan Huang Xin Jie Muhammad Syafiq bin Juffri Cheon Jin-hee Jang Jong-pil Park Sang-jun Apichit Nophuan Pattarapong Kijsathit Rawut Nakarit Akmal G'iyosov Sanzhar Shoyusupov Nguyễn Trung Việt
Fourth officials
Naufal Adya Fairuski Thoriq Alkatiri Izzul Fikri Kamaruzaman Mohammad Nawal Zakaria Ismail Tuan Mohd Yaasin bin Tuan Mohd Hanafiah Muhammad Taqi Ahmad A'Qashah Muhammad Zulfiqar Alongkorn Khonwai Sivakorn Pu-udom Wiwat Jumpao-on Hoàng Ngọc Hà Lê Vũ Linh Nguyễn Mạnh Hải
Video assistant officials
Jin Jingyuan Sami Ahmed Al Jurays Muhammad Taqi Farhad Mohamed Mongkolchai Pechsri Sivakorn Pu-udom Pansa Chaisanit Choi Hyun-jai
Venues As the tournament was held outside the FIFA international match calendar, both Malaysia and Singapore were unable to use their usual home venues.
Malaysia hosted its home matches at Kuala Lumpur Stadium because Bukit Jalil National Stadium was unavailable due to restrictions associated with the Zeon Zoysia pitch sponsorship and usage agreement. Under the agreement, the stadium could only be used for FIFA international windows and designated domestic cup matches to preserve the quality of the playing surface. In addition, Bukit Jalil National Stadium was closed for extensive track and facility upgrade works in preparation for the upcoming 2027 SEA Games, rendering it unavailable for the duration of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Singapore played its home fixtures at Jalan Besar Stadium because the National Stadium was being used for rehearsals and preparations for the country's National Day celebrations.
Phnom Penh Bangkok YangonMorodok Techo National StadiumRajamangala StadiumThuwunna StadiumCapacity: 60,000Capacity: 51,560Capacity: 50,000 Hanoi BogorMỹ Đình National StadiumPakansari StadiumCapacity: 40,192Capacity: 30,000 Vientiane CapasNew Laos National StadiumNew Clark City Athletics StadiumCapacity: 20,000Capacity: 20,000 Kuala Lumpur Chonburi KallangKuala Lumpur StadiumChonburi StadiumJalan Besar StadiumCapacity: 18,000Capacity: 8,680Capacity: 6,500 Notes
Group stage Tie-breaking criteria for group stage rankingThe ranking is determined by the points obtained in group matches. If two or more teams are equal on points, the following criteria are used:
If, after having applied criteria a to c, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria a to c are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who are still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria d to h apply.
Group winners and runners-up will advance to the semi-finals.
All times listed are local. Group A
Group B
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time (in the second leg), extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If the scores are still tied, the match is decided by a penalty shoot-out.
As with every tournament since the 2007 AFF Championship, there is no third place play-off.
All times listed are local
Bracket
Semi-finals Summary
Matches
Thailand won 4–3 on aggregate.
Vietnam won 4–0 on aggregate.
Final
Summary
Matches First leg
Second leg
Vietnam won 4–2 on aggregate.
Statistics Winner 2026 ASEAN ChampionshipFourth title
Awards Best goalkeeperBest playerBest young playerTop scorer Lê Giang Patrik Nguyễn Đình Bắc Yotsakorn Burapha Nguyễn Đình Bắc Nguyễn Xuân Son
Goalscorers
Discipline A player or team official was automatically suspended for the next match of the tournament for the following offenses: Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offenses). Receiving two yellow cards in the tournament.
The following suspensions were accumulated during the tournament:
+Tournament suspensions for players and team officialsPlayerOffense(s)Suspension(s) Phetdavanh Somsanith in Group B vs Thailand (25 July)Group B vs Malaysia (28 July) Eric Silva in Group A vs Vietnam (24 July) in Group A vs Singapore (27 July)Group A vs Indonesia (31 July) Yudai Ogawa in Group A vs Singapore (24 July) in Group A vs Indonesia (27 July)Group A vs Timor-Leste (3 August) Jackson Pereira in Group A vs Indonesia (31 July)Group A vs Cambodia (3 August) Kyoga Nakamura in Group A vs Timor-Leste (27 July) in Group A vs Vietnam (31 July)Group A vs Indonesia (7 August) Phetdavanh Somsanith in Group B vs Philippines (1 August)Group B vs Myanmar (4 August) Kaharn Phetsivilay in Group B vs Thailand (25 July) in Group B vs Myanmar (4 August)Suspension served outside the tournament Maung Maung Lwin in Group B vs Laos (4 August)Group B vs Thailand (8 August) Sayfon Keohanam in Group B vs Myanmar (4 August)Suspension served outside the tournament Song Ui-young in Group A vs Timor-Leste (27 July) in Group A vs Indonesia (7 August)Semi-finals 1st leg vs Thailand (15 August) Ivar Jenner in Group A vs Vietnam (3 August) in Group A vs Singapore (7 August)Suspension served outside the tournament Tournament teams ranking This table will show the ranking of teams throughout the tournament.
Marketing Official match ball The tournament's official match ball, the Adidas Tiro 26, was unveiled on 23 January.
Sponsorship Title partnerPresenting partnersOfficial sponsorsOfficial supportersOfficial performance/shaving partner Hyundai Motor Company Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Shopee ALL - Accor Live Limitless Acecook Aussie Beef & Lamb Daikin Liqui Moly VietJet Air Yanmar Giti Tire Helm AG Adidas Procter & Gamble (Gillette)
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