KUALA LUMPUR: The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) announced today that the Official Draw for the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 will take place on Tuesday, 21 September, at 15:00 MYT (GMT+8). The draw will be hosted as a virtual event for the first time in AFF Suzuki Cup history.
As the ASEAN region continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, AFF has decided that for the safety and wellbeing of all involved, the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 Official Draw will take place virtually from a studio, with the majority of the AFF Member Associations and all stakeholders joining the proceedings remotely from their respective countries.
Fans can watch the proceeding live on the following channels and platforms.
Live Broadcast channels and platforms
• Indonesia
o Champions TV
o Vidio App
• Malaysia
o Astro: Arena Ch 801, Supersport, Go(Digital), Sooka (Digital)
o RTM: RTM Sports HD, RTM Digital platforms
• Vietnam:
o Next Media’s social digital channels: Next Sports, VFF channel
o Vietnam Television: channel VTV6 and/or VTV5
o Vietnam Cable PayTV (VTVCAB) service: “ON Sports +” and “On Football”
o Hochiminh City Television: channel HTV The Thao (HTV Sports)
o Binhduong Television: channel BTV2.
AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 Social Media platforms
• AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 website: https://affsuzukicup.com/2020/fan-zone/group-draw
• AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/E7F6fiJ5sic
• AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/affsuzukicup/
AFF President, Major General Khiev Sameth, shared, “The safety of everyone involved in the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 is our top priority and we cannot compromise on the health of our teams, partners and stakeholders during these uncertain times. As such, we have decided to host the Official Draw as a virtual event. We feel it is important to proceed with the draw to give teams clarity on their tournament groupings and opponents so as to better prepare for the tournament taking place at the end of the year. We can’t wait to see how the draw pans out, and the action that will unfold in a couple of months.”
Malcolm Thorpe, Managing Director, South East Asia at SPORTIVE, said, “This is the first time that AFF will be hosting a virtual official draw for the AFF Suzuki Cup and we are delighted to be able to play a part in bringing this to life. We fully support AFF in changing the official draw to a virtual one to prioritise the health and safety of all involved. With the advance of live streaming and virtual hosting technologies, the opportunity to deliver a creative solution for the virtual draw has been exciting and we hope that fans from around the region will tune in to be a part of that experience.”
In addition to the Official Draw, there will also be a short pre-and post-draw show supported by the event sponsor Midea, where Singapore football legend Fandi Ahmad will share his insights into the tournament history and give his views on the official draw results and his predictions for some of the upcoming matches in December. The pre-draw show will start at 14:40 MYT (GMT+8) and the post-draw show will follow after the live broadcast of the Official Draw. These can be viewed on Goal Asia’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/goalasia/ and Twitter account: https://twitter.com/Goal_Asia_.
To celebrate this important milestone for AFF Suzuki Cup 2020, Official Timekeeper Sponsor Casio will be launching custom designed watches inspired by some of the participating countries’ national symbols. Every player from each of the participating national teams will receive a Casio G-SHOCK watch as a memento for competing in the tournament.
The AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 has been scheduled to take place between 5th December 2021 – 1 st January 2022. Further details of the event will be shared in due course.