The ASEAN Club Championship or ACC, also known as the Shopee Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an international club football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) between regional clubs.[1] The competition is backed by AFC and FIFA.[2][3][4]
History
ASEAN Champions' Cup, first held in 1984, served as the qualifier for the Asian Club Championship. Bangkok Bank became the first champion.[5] The ASEAN Club Championship was held as biannual tournament in 2003 and 2005.[6] The first edition was sponsored by the LG Electronics, also known as the LG Cup ASEAN Club Football Championship.[7] However, the tournament failed to gain traction due to lack of sponsors and conflict with the main calendar of the Asian Football Confederation. Plans to revive the tournament started as early as 2012.[8] The tournament's revival was again proposed in 2019,[1] but was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] The tournament was revived in April 2024 for the 2024–25 edition, with a new title sponsor Shopee.[10]
Competition format and regulations
The format of the ASEAN Club Championship was the same as the AFC Cup, each national association in Southeast Asia sending their champion club representing the domestic league. The participating clubs were split into several groups in a round-robin format. The winners and runners-up advanced to quarter-finals or semi-finals.
The format of the ASEAN Club Championship includes qualifying round play-offs, a group stage and a knock-out stage consisting of semi-finals and the final.
Full season tournament features the national league champions and designated Cup winners (or runners-up in certain instances) of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam (two teams each), and Cambodia (one team). The national league champions of Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines will compete in Qualifying Round Play-Offs for two places in the Group Stage. The defending champions automatically qualify.
Sponsorship
The ASEAN Club Championship has had title sponsors since its first two editions in 2003 and 2005. Following the competition's revival in 2024, title sponsorship was reintroduced. The competition has been known by various names incorporating those sponsors.
Following statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference, then by goals scored. Only the top twenty five are listed (excludes qualifying rounds).