The move aims to ensure the optimum strength and performance of all national teams competing at the tournament. 

Accordingly, the tournament’s qualification round will remain on October 8 and October 15; with group stage matches now kicking-off on December 8; followed by double-legged semi-finals on December 26, December 27, December 29, and December 30; with the finals played on January 2 and January 5, 2025. 

The 2024 ASEAN Cup features 10 participating teams divided into two groups.

Group A consists of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and the winner of the Timor Leste-Brunei play-off.

Vietnam have been placed in Group B together with Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Laos.

Teams from the same seeded group will not meet in the group stage.

They play in a round robin format in the group stage, with home and away matches. The top two teams in each group will then advance to the semifinals.

The Vietnamese team will begin by playing in Laos on November 24, then return home to host Indonesia on November 30. They will then be guests in the Philippines on December 3, before then hosting Myanmar on December 7 in the final group stage game.

Held biennially, the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup is the region’s largest football event. Since its inception in 1996, the competition, which features ASEAN national teams has grown from strength to strength with each edition.

In 2022, the tournament achieved a record of more than 438 million viewers on television and digital streaming platforms. Additionally, digital media channels Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X registered 4.2 billion views of event-related videos.

VOV