Football fans have been buzzing around an interesting social media proposal about the possibility of India joining the Asean Football Confederation (AFF). Thus, India will join teams in this region at the AFF Cup 2020.
The Indian football team has just taken part in the King’s Cup 2019 in Thailand with their new coach, Igor Stimac. After losing to Curacao 1-3 in the semi-finals, the army of the Croatian coach defeated the hosts Thailand 1-0 in the third match.
It was the second time in 2019 that India beat Thailand. The first time is a resounding 4-1 victory in the group stage of the Asian Cup 2019. Thanks to the amazing performance of India in King’s Cup 2019, some Southeast Asian football fans want India to join AFF. This will be able to create more competition in ASEAN competitions. Previously, Australia has officially sent an offer to join to compete in the AFF Cup 2020, the tournament in which Vietnam is the current champion.
This topic has become a hotly debated one on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In particular, many netizens welcomed the idea, but many fans resolutely opposed it.
A lot of people supported India to join Australian team used to do the same and get approved. They hope that the proposal of India to join AFF will create bigger competition. Therefore, it will help South East Asia football development. Others greatly emphasized the AFF Cup would become a championship that gained much more attention from the public thanks to the appearance of Australia and India. A Vietnamese netizen proposed inviting India to the AFF Cup as a guest like the Copa America (South America) has been doing.
However, some netizens are not happy with the idea. For reasons other than geographical reasons, AFF should retain the identity of the region. Netizens said that if you invite another team outside of Southeast Asia, it is no longer called ASEAN.
Others gave a very thorough explanation, stressing that it would be difficult for India to get permission from the Asian Football Federation if it wants to leave the South Asian Football Federation. At the same time, they think that a team that is not really strong like India will be difficult to increase competition in the AFF Cup