Malaysian expert: “Vietnam team will lose its dominance in Southeast Asia”

(Dan Tri) - Malaysian expert, Raja Isa Raja Akram Syah, believes that Vietnam and Thailand will lose their dominance in the FIFA ASEAN Cup.

Recently, FIFA President Gianni Infantino approved the decision to establish the FIFA ASEAN Cup. This is a completely new tournament for 11 teams in the Southeast Asian region and will be played according to the FIFA schedule.

Expert Raja Isa believes that the Vietnamese team will lose its dominant position if the FIFA ASEAN Cup is held (Photo: Minh Quan).

That means that teams with many players playing abroad such as Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand will be able to call up the strongest squad. The AFF Cup is not held on FIFA Days (national team gatherings according to FIFA's schedule), so these teams often cannot call up their strongest squad.

Even in the 2024 AFF Cup, Indonesia sent the U22 team to participate and they had to stop right from the group stage. Malaysian football expert, Mr. Raja Isa Raja Akram Syah, highly appreciated FIFA's decision. He said that the new tournament will help Southeast Asian football to improve. At the same time, the Vietnamese and Thai teams will lose the dominance they showed in previous AFF Cup tournaments.

“I believe that the FIFA ASEAN Cup will have many positive impacts. When held within the official framework of FIFA, the tournament will certainly be more competitive and will no longer be dominated by teams like Thailand or Vietnam,” he said.

Mr. Raja Isa also commented that FIFA's direct sponsorship will prevent teams from considering this a procedural playground as before: "Previously, at the AFF Cup, some teams only released young squads because they considered it an opportunity to test for bigger tournaments such as the SEA Games or the U23 Asia. But with the FIFA ASEAN Cup, that will change completely."

Malaysia has many players playing abroad but cannot be called up to participate in the AFF Cup (Photo: FAM).

As a tournament under the official FIFA system, the results of the matches at the FIFA ASEAN Cup will be counted towards the FIFA rankings, thereby creating more motivation for the teams to compete. “When the FIFA score is affected, every team will aim to win the championship or at least improve their ranking. And when the prestige of the tournament increases, sponsors will also invest more,” said Mr. Raja Isa.

The biggest difference between the FIFA ASEAN Cup and the AFF Cup lies in their official status and global scale. While the AFF Cup is only organized by the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF), often takes place outside the FIFA calendar and lacks many big stars, the FIFA ASEAN Cup is recognized, sponsored and directly supervised by FIFA.

Bola (Indonesia) newspaper commented: "This event is not only a step forward for Southeast Asian football, but also demonstrates FIFA's commitment to raising the level of developing football, providing an opportunity for the region to affirm its position on the world football map."

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/chuyen-gia-malaysia-tuyen-viet-nam-se-mat-su-thong-tri-o-dong-nam-a-20251031195201530.htm