In line with its shared commitment to elevate the sports scene across the Southeast Asian region, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) has announced Shopee as the title partner of the inaugural ASEAN Club Championship.
Anchored on inclusivity and fostering promising talents, the ASEAN Shopee Cup™ is the first-ever official regional club competition in Southeast Asia to crown an ASEAN Club Champion annually. This landmark event brings together top Filipino athletes alongside their regional counterparts, promoting football as a unifying force while nurturing the next generation of football talents in the ASEAN community.
For Kaya FC-Iloilo, the official representative of the Philippines to the tournament, the ASEAN Shopee Cup™, gives yet another opportunity to showcase the athletic prowess of Filipino athletes on an international scale.
“The Shopee Cup seems to be a competition that can provide fun to many passionate Southeast Asian football fans. It’s not easy to see the top teams from each country competing like this. On a larger scale, it will be helpful for the development of football in Southeast Asia and throughout Asia,” said Kaya FC-Iloilo’s defender Park Yi-young.
Park noted the remarkable development of Filipino football in the competitive scene and how the ASEAN Shopee Cup™ propels the local sport to new heights in the country. “There are more good local young players now. While 10 years ago, there was more focus on foreign players, now it seems that there are more local young players coming to the professional stage after receiving better coaching from their school teams. While there’s still work to be done, the progress so far has been remarkable for the development of Philippine football,” he added.
The ASEAN Shopee Cup features a series of matches among the fourteen football clubs from ten different Southeast Asian countries: Young Elephants FC (Laos), Svay Rieng FC (Cambodia), Kasuka FC (Brunei), Shan United FC (Myanmar), Dong A Thanh Hoa FC (Vietnam), Terengganu FC (Malaysia), PSM Makassar (Indonesia), BG Pathum United Football Club (Thailand), Kaya FC-Iloilo (Philippines), Kuala Lumpur City FC (Malaysia), Buriram United FC (Thailand), Công An Hà Nôi FC (Vietnam), Borneo FC (Indonesia), and Lion City Sailors (Singapore).
Two groups of six teams each will compete across five midweek match days, following a single round-robin format with both home and away matches played. Clubs from the same country will be strategically scheduled to avoid playing each other during the initial phase.
Under Group B, Kaya FC-Iloilo is set to first face Kuala Lumpur City FC (Malaysia) on August 22, 2024 at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium.
The top two finishers from each group will advance to the semi-finals, which will be played on April 2 and 30, 2025 on a home-and-away basis. The finals to be held on May 14 and 21, 2025 will follow the same format.
Witness the thrilling football action and tune in to the matches via ASEAN United FC’s YouTube channel. Join the excitement during the halftime Shopee Shake for a chance to collect Shopee coins!
