Kuala Lumpur, 10 November 2021 - With the excitement building ahead of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and commercial partner SPORTFIVE today unveiled the tournament’s themes that will set the tone for a show-stopping event taking place in Singapore from 5 December to 1 January 2022. This year’s event will be a celebration of the Stars and Superheroes of the event – the teams, players, fans – but also the frontliners across ASEAN that have been battling the pandemic to keep our communities safe.

Theme 1: Our Stars – Our Teams

The exhilarating football action, passionate fanbase and intense rivalry amongst teams have always been a staple for the AFF Suzuki Cup with fans ever eager to prove their team’s superiority over their opposition. While the pandemic has caused some disruptions, these rivalries have not disappeared but merely went into hibernation, because #RivalriesNeverDie. Leading up to the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 in December, fans are called upon to rise up once again and reignite the rivalries and demonstrate at the upcoming tournament that #RivalriesNeverDie.

Inspired by the players and teams who are every fan’s Stars, SPORTFIVE has refreshed the visual identity of each team and created new team masks that reimagine the image and identity of each ASEAN nation. Each team mask is visually crafted to personify the respective football federations and fans can look forward to seeing these masks across the AFF Suzuki Cup channels and have the opportunity to interact with the masks as filters on our social media platforms.

Theme 2: Our Superheroes – Our Frontliners

Off the pitch, AFF will be using the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 as a platform for the ASEAN football family to come together and thank our real-life superheroes – the frontliners, for their sacrifice, compassion and dedication during these unprecedented times.

To shine the spotlight on these superheroes, AFF has dedicated the tagline “Emerging Stronger Together” and planned a series of CSR initiatives for the ASEAN football family, including the teams, players and the millions of fans across the region, to pay tribute to all frontliners and thank them for their efforts and hard work over the past few years.

AFF President, Major General Khiev Sameth, said, “This year’s AFF Suzuki Cup is momentous. The frontline workers have often gone beyond the call of duty to care for the community and they are superheroes in their own right. Football has the power of bringing people together, so it is important for us, the ASEAN football family, to express our gratitude to them during this special occasion and show our unity and resilience as a community as we emerge stronger together.”  

Malcolm Thorpe, Managing Director, South East Asia at SPORTFIVE, said “In addition to the growing excitement around the return of the AFF Suzuki Cup and the opportunity to celebrate the players and teams as the football stars that they are, we are delighted to support AFF in their quest to celebrate the superheroes in our midst, especially all our frontliners who have been working tirelessly in the respective countries to keep their communities safe. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts and look forward to emerging stronger together as an united ASEAN region.”