International football competition
The 2012 AFF Championship, sponsored by Suzuki and officially known as the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, was the 9th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of Southeast Asia. It was co-hosted for group stage by Malaysia and Thailand and took place from 24 November to 22 December 2012.
Malaysia were the defending champions but were eliminated by Thailand in the semi-finals. Singapore became the first side to win the AFF Championship four times, beating Thailand 3–2 on aggregate in the finals. Singapore coach Radojko Avramović also became the most successful coach in tournament history, adding to his wins in 2004 and 2007.
Hosts.
On 17 December 2010, the Philippine Football Federation declared their interest to host the 2012 AFF Championship. However, with no other reported interest and following the meeting of the AFF Council on 19 February 2011, Malaysia and Thailand were announced as hosts of the group stage.
Venues.
There were two main venues; the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur and the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok. The secondary venues; the Shah Alam Stadium in Shah Alam, Selangor State and the Supachalasai Stadium in Bangkok for the final round of group games on 30 November and 1 December. The Supachalasai Stadium replaced the Muang Thong Stadium as the alternative venue for the final match day in Group A on 27 November, after itself had been replaced by the Muang Thong Stadium on 17 October. If Thailand reached the semifinals and finals, their home games were played at the Supachalasai Stadium as the Rajamangala was hosting the 2012 Race of Champions.
Philippines and Singapore also hosted games due to making the knockout stages. The Philippines hosted at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, the first time an AFF Championship game was held in the Philippines and Singapore hosted at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
Qualification.
Qualification took place from 5 to 13 October 2012. It involved the five lower ranked teams in Southeast Asia. All teams played in a round-robin tournament format with the top two teams qualifying for the tournament proper. Six teams have qualified directly to the finals.
Draw.
The draw for the tournament as well as the qualification tournament took place on the afternoon of 11 July 2012 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Bangkok. The teams that qualified via the qualifying stages were not yet determined at the time of the draw. The eight finalists were divided into four pots of two teams each based on team rankings.
Final tournament.
Group stage.
Tie-breaking criteria.
Ranking in each group shall be determine as follows:
If two or more teams are equal on the basis on the above three criteria, the place shall be determined as follows:
However, these criteria would not apply if two teams tied on points, goals scored, and conceded played against each other in their final group match, are still level at the end of that match, and no other team in group finishes with same points; in that case, the tie would be broken by a penalty shootout.
Knockout stage.
Semifinals.
"Singapore won 1–0 on aggregate."
"Thailand won 3–1 on aggregate."
Final.
"Singapore won 3–2 on aggregate."
Player statistics.
Discipline.
In the final tournament, a player was suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches.
Goalscorers.
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References.
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