Only one week left before the 2024 ASEAN Championship, a regional tournament for national teams from across Southeast Asia begins.
Established in 1996 as the Tiger Cup and later AFF Championship, the competition has since been held biennially, except for some specific circumstances like in 2007, by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), a sub-unit of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The most successful team in the competition is Thailand with seven titles, followed by Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.
This tournament has been cherished by the Southeast Asian nations because it is their opportunity to showcase their love for football to the world, given Southeast Asia’s underachieving reputation.
Australia was originally part of the Oceania zone when the tournament was first established. It took nearly two decades for Australia to finally enter the Southeast Asian football family, and seven years after its entrance to the AFC.
When the Aussies officially moved into the AFF in 2013, the Socceroos remained a level too tall for the rest of Southeast Asia. As such, the rest agreed to allow Australia to become an AFF member under one strict condition: the Socceroos were barred from entering the competition.
This was done to help these Southeast Asian national teams (NTs) improve until they could field more and more competitive squads in the future.
Such restriction wasn’t applied to the youth teams of Australia in respective regional youth events.
For quite a long time, the Socceroos sat and watched from afar, and wondered if their Southeast Asian neighbours could do well or if they would just become wasted potential. Yet their progression, while slow, was immense.
In the 2018 World Cup qualification, Australia, then Asian champions at the time, had extreme difficulties trying to overcome Thailand.
The Aussies held to a shock 2-2 away draw while a hard-fought 2-1 home win was not enough to give Australia direct qualification following Saudi Arabia’s 1-0 win at home to Japan.
In the 2022 WCQ, the Socceroos got some improvement against Vietnam, beating them both home and away despite multiple nervy moments. But it was the Socceroos’ only bright point in a series of lame showings that saw Australia dumped to yet another playoff phase.
Despite this, Thailand and Vietnam were unable to qualify for the World Cup, so Australia failed to take it seriously.
This time around, the situation is far more concerning, given the expansion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup from 32 to 48 teams.
(Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
Indonesia, which marked their debut in this phase, were no longer the Indonesian team used to be in the past.
Led by Shin Tae-yong, who masterminded South Korea’s famous 2-0 win over Germany in the 2018 World Cup, Indonesia experienced a major revival for a country historically underachieved.
The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) President, Erick Thohir, who was the former owner of Serie A outfit Inter Milan, activated a policy of naturalisation process that scouted numerous players of Indonesian ancestry from across the world, mainly from the Netherlands, Indonesia’s former colonial masters.
The team also nurtured a group of players originally set to compete in the U20 World Cup in 2023, which Indonesia were the original host – before controversies surrounding Israel left it stripped from hosting that event and the U17 World Cup the same year.
The impact of these efforts was enormous. Indonesia advanced past the group stages of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, and recently impressed at the third round of the 2026 WCQ, including being undefeated against Saudi Arabia in their two games, and an impressive home draw against Australia that caused Graham Arnold to resign.
Yet it was the mind-blowing 2-0 home win to Saudi Arabia, the conquerors of Argentina in the 2022 World Cup, that caused a major sensation in Indonesia and across Asia over the shock win, to a point even Indonesian media proclaimed they are superior to Leo Messi’s Argentina.
On the other hand, Australia have shown that they failed to adhere to past lessons. Despite two consecutive WCQs being dumped to the playoffs, Australia continued to prove completely inept at adjusting to the situation.
A complete inability to beat a tricky Bahrain side and failure to find the back of the net against Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, have left Australia in an extremely precarious situation that could be described as a full-blown crisis.
The reason why the Socceroos are in second has more to do with the chaotic nature of the group; except for runaway leaders Japan, the other teams’ instabilities and crises, notably Saudi Arabia’s ongoing collapse, salvaged Australia’s subpar campaign.
But while Australia clearly needs a total inquiry to investigate why the Socceroos have been so torrid in recent WCQs, Indonesia will have a major regional football event to take part in to improve their competitiveness.
The ASEAN Championship isn’t part of the FIFA calendar, so key players are not obliged to return to their respective NTs, but that also means Indonesia will have opportunities to diversify the use of their player pool.
Still, their squad announcement for the competition also included some experienced members like Rafael Struick, Asnawi Mangkualam, Pratama Arhan and notably, Oxford United’s Marselino Ferdinan, whose goals downed the Saudis 2-0 in Jakarta.
Given how much Indonesia have progressed, the fact that Australia won’t participate in the upcoming ASEAN Championship is a terrible sign.
Had Australia been given the green light to participate, it would have been much better for the Socceroos to diversify the pool of players and fix their scoring woes.
Unfortunately, the clause that forbade Australia from participating in the senior Southeast Asian event in 2013 has also enabled negligence among Football Australia officials.
This is further exacerbated by the lack of cultural common. While all Southeast Asian states share a close heritage, Australia is viewed with suspicion due to its European background, a legacy of historical imperialism practised by the West.
Yet, with what’s happened in the 2026 WCQ, it is more urgent than ever for Australia.
The country cannot afford to ignore the increasing strength of the Southeast Asian nations, given the membership within AFF since 2013.
Football Australia should start re-negotiate the clause, and actively campaign to abolish the ban. Indonesia’s progression should be used as a justification to end the ridiculous ban on Socceroos’ participation.
A proactive solution has to be proposed and pushed forward to end the restriction to allow the Socceroos to play like a Southeast Asian team.
Additionally, those nations have also recognised that they need Australia’s participation more than ever.
The lack of the Socceroos in the senior ASEAN Championship has also been blamed for hampering the growth of football in the region.
Many Southeast Asian NTs have great difficulties playing with teams that are physical, tricky and manipulative like Uzbekistan, Jordan, China and Oman – or even maintaining consistency due to lack of playing with stronger teams.
There is also a rising sentiment more friendly to the admission of Australia to the senior ASEAN Championship, as long as it aligns with the interests to grow football across Southeast Asia, which can also be used, partly due to the Aussies’ World Cup experience.
It’s the time for Australia to finally pressure the AFF to allow it to enter the regional competition, and it’s also the time for Southeast Asia to recognise the benefits of having Australia participating.
Japan and South Korea still participate in the regional East Asian Championship alongside the less successful China and North Korea.
While Iran is playing in the regional Central Asian Championship with the likes of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. So, why is Australia barred from joining the most senior Southeast Asian competition?
It’s better for the Socceroos to be part of the ASEAN Championship in the future, to improve their player pool.
It’s now or never for the Socceroos to change for the sake of the future.
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