FOR the second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASEAN Football Federation announced Monday night that the AFF Suzuki Cup, the region’s premier men’s soccer tournament, has been reset to Dec. 5, 2021 to Jan. 1, 2022.
“This decision reflects the continued priority of AFF, which is the health and safety of everyone,” AFF president Maj. Gen. Khiev Sameth of Cambodia said in a statement posted on the federation’s website.
“This has also been made to provide greater certainty to all of the event’s stakeholders, including AFF member associations, teams, players and officials, commercial partners and fans,” Sameth stressed.
The tourney was originally set to kick off last November but was reset by the regional football body to April 11 to May 8, 2021, apparently in the hope that a vaccine for the novel coronavirus would be available by that time.
“As always, our first priority is the health and safety of everyone connected with the event.
As such, we have been monitoring COVID-19 developments, both within ASEAN and in the wider world, on a continuous basis,” Sameth explained.
“While there have been encouraging results in vaccine development, we are cognizant that the process of vaccine approval, as well as the practicalities…of vaccine programs across the world, including ASEAN, will take some time,” he added.
