AFF Championship
The ASEAN Football Federation Championship, less formally the AFF Championship or AFF Cup, is the primary association football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). A biennial international association football competition, it is contested by the men's national teams of the AFF, determining the sub-continental champion of Southeast Asia. The competition has been held every two years since 1996 scheduled to be in the even-numbered year, except for 2007, and 2020 (which was postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). Founded as the Tiger Cup after Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, the  makers of Tiger Beer, it sponsored the competition from its inauguration in 1996 until the 2004 edition. After Asia Pacific Breweries withdrew as title sponsors, the competition was known simply as the AFF Championship for the 2007 edition. From 2008, Japanese auto-company Suzuki bought the naming rights for the competition, and the competition has therefore been named the AFF Suzuki Cup for sponsorship reasons. The AFF Championship title have been won by four national teams; Thailand have won six titles, Singapore has four titles, Vietnam has two titles and Malaysia with one title. To date, Thailand and Singapore are  the only teams in history to have won consecutive titles; Thailand in 2000 and 2002 and also in 2014 and 2016, and Singapore in 2004 and 2007. It is one of the most watched football tournaments in the region. Since 2018, the championship winners would compete in the following AFF–EAFF Champions Trophy, against the winner of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship, the champions of East Asia, to determine the champions of East and Southeast Asia. Since joining the AFF in 2013, Australia has never competed in the AFF Championship. History. The first ASEAN Championship took place in 1996 with  the six founding members of ASEAN Federation competing with four nations being invited that came in that region. The final saw Thailand become the first champions of ASEAN as they defeated Malaysia 1–0 in Singapore. The top four nations automatically qualified through to the finals in the following edition. This meant the other six nations had to compete in qualifying for the remaining four spots. Myanmar, Singapore, Laos and Philippines all made it through to the main tournament. Organisation. Sports marketing, media and event management firm, Lagardère Sports has been involved in the tournament since the inaugural edition in 1996 . Between 1996 and 2006, Tiger Beer was the title sponsor. Suzuki has been title sponsor of the tournament since 2008. Format. From 2004, the knockout stage is played over two legs on a home-and-away format. Since the 2007 edition, there was no third place match; semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order. The away goals rule has been applied for knockout stage since the 2010 edition. Starting with the 2018 edition, a new format was applied. The nine highest ranked teams would automatically qualify with the 10th and 11th ranked teams playing in a two-legged qualifier. The  10 teams were split in two groups of five and play a round robin system, with each team playing two home and two away fixtures. A draw was made to determine where the teams play while the format of the knockout round remained unchanged.