AFF CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW ON AUG 27 IN JAKARTA

The date for the draw was decided by the AFF at a meeting held here yesterday.

The qualifying rounds for the AFF Championship will be staged in Cambodia from Oct 17 to 25 where five nations will battle for the two available slots in the final rounds later in the year.

Apart from the hosts, the four other countries in the qualifying event are the Philippines, Laos, Timor Leste and Brunei.

The two qualifiers will then hook up with defending champions Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam in the tournament proper which will kick-off on Dec 5.

The premier tournament ends on Dec 28.

Thailand and Indonesia will host the group stage competition while the semifinals and final will be held on a home-and-away basis.

This format has been highly successful and results in large crowds during the knock-out stage.

It was also announced that a workshop on the AFF Championship would be held for all participating teams on the same day as the draw.

The workshop is for a minimum of two and maximum of three participants from each country.

One of them must be a technical official.

The rules and regulations of the event will be discussed so teams will be fully prepared and aware of the competition rules and their obligations and responsibilities when they compete in the AFF Championship 2008.

This will avoid any issues from the teams during the tournament.