AFF is about to make a historic change, Vietnam National Team will face difficulties on the journey to conquer the Southeast Asian gold cup
The Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) is preparing to have a new member and this team will likely also participate in the AFF Cup in the future.
AFF is about to have a historic change, Vietnam National Team will face difficulties
ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) President Samet Khiev and Secretary General Winston Lee visited and worked with the Kyrgyzstan Football Federation. Here, the two sides reached many cooperation agreements, including the Kyrgyzstan team being able to participate in tournaments organized by the AFF.
Currently, Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Central Asian Football Federation (CAFA), which includes 6 members: Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. With the agreement just reached, the Kyrgyzstan national team can participate in the AFF Cup in the future, most recently the AFF Cup 2024.
If this becomes a reality, it will be a historic change for the tournament as it will be the first time a country outside of Southeast Asia will participate in the AFF Cup.
In the past, the AFF Cup only had a maximum of 10 participating teams and was divided into two groups to compete. However, Southeast Asia has up to 11 countries and if Kyrgyzstan participates, it is very likely that from the next AFF Cup, there will be 12 participating teams.
Thus, the tournament will likely be divided into 3 groups (4 teams each). Kyrgyzstan is ranked 96th on the FIFA rankings, just one place below Vietnam and higher than the remaining teams in the Southeast Asian region. The presence of Kyrgyzstan promises to increase the competitiveness at the AFF Cup.
Therefore, the chances of competing for the championship of top teams like Vietnam, Thailand or Indonesia will decrease. In history, the Vietnam national team has faced Kyrgyzstan twice at the youth level. We won one and lost one. The most recent meeting was just last March, when U23 Vietnam lost to U23 Kyrgyzstan in a penalty shootout after the two teams drew 0-0 after 90 minutes.
