HISTORY OF ASEAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION
Humble Origins
Every great story has a humble beginning and so it is with the history of the ASEAN Football Federation.
It started way back in 1982, in what was initially an informal meeting between several members of the ASEAN family, turned out to be the foundation of a Federation that is responsible for one of the biggest football championships in the world, the AFF Football championship.
The initial meeting in Bangkok was attended by Dato’ Seri Haji Hamzah Haji Abu Samah (Malaysia), Dato’ Peter Velappan (AFC), Mr. Hans Pendelaki (Indonesia), Mr. Fernando G. Alvarez (Philippine), Mr. Pisit Ngampanich (Thailand), Mr. Teo Chong Tee (Singapore) and Mr. Yap Boon Chuan (Singapore).
The original idea for the meeting, then held in between the meetings of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Executive Committee in Bangkok, was to look into the possibility of having a Champions’ Club Competition among ASEAN Member Associations.
It was felt that since there was a great disparity in football standard between nations the ASEAN nations i.e. between those who have and those who do not, this tournament would help close the gap between the countries.
By then, ASEAN was already a strong political entity which had already hosted the South East Asia Games for ASEAN member countries for more than two decades.
It was felt that a close cooperation at the football level would improve the quality of football across the region and would make it more competitive at the Asian and world level meets.
Five further meetings of the ASEAN National Associations were held the next year traversing between Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok before the AFF were formalised in Kuala Lumpur.
The very first meeting of the newly established ASEAN Football Federation or the AFF was held from 31 January 1984 to 1 February 1984 in Jakarta and was attended by members from Brunei DS, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand.
The six countries concerned were the founding members of the AFF.
The first office bearers were elected from the country chosen to host the very first ASEAN Club Championship.
The First Elected office bearers were:–
President : Mr. H. Kardono (Indonesia)
Vice-President : Pengiran Ibrahim Pengiran Damit (Brunei DS)
Honorary Secretary: Dr. Johnny J. L. M (Indonesia)
Honorary Treasurer: Mr. Gazfan S. Ali (Indonesia)
In line with the ideals of the political entity of ASEAN which was to strengthen ties between member countries, the AFF attempted to hold on to those ideals by organising four editions of the ASEAN Club Championship between 1984 and 1989.
The tournament was organised with the aim of deciding which team would represent ASEAN at the Asian Club Championships to go against the best clubs in Asia.
Called the First ASEAN Champions’ Cup, the inaugural meet in 1984 was won by Bangkok Bank of Thailand when they beat Yanita Utama of Indonesia 1-0 in the final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in front of 80,000 fans.
With just four teams in 1985, Kuala Lumpur from Malaysia emerged winners ahead of Tiga Berlian from Indonesia, Tiong Bahru CSC from Singapore and Brunei’s Kota Rangers.
In 1988, the ASEAN Champions’ Cup was held again with Thai Air Force taking the top spot ahead of Pahang while a year later, Kuala Lumpur from Malaysia were the winners, pipping Pelita Jaya of Indonesia to the crown.
But with a change in format for the AFC-organised Asian Club Championship a year later, compounded with a lack of response from member associations, as well as financial constraints, the ASEAN Champions’ Cup fizzled out.
The AFF then went into hibernation with activities restricted to mostly development activities and were country based with participation from other ASEAN countries purely on invitation by the host country for a particular course or seminar.
With no controlling intermediary body to liaise between member countries, contact between Asean National Associations was minimal.
Norshahrul can make a difference in AFF Suzuki Cup (The Star Online) By : Persekutuan Bolasepak Asean (Asean Football Federation - AFF) 20 Oct 1999