Why Can’t Southeast Asian Countries Qualify for the World Cup?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
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Only once has a team from Southeast Asia appeared at the World Cup. That was Indonesia in 1938 when they were called the Dutch East Indies. It's safe to say a lot has changed since then. To put this into context, Iceland, Angola, Haiti, and Iraq have made the same number of World Cup appearances as Southeast Asia.
That is pretty wild when you think about it. Southeast Asia has nearly 700 million people, roughly eight percent of the world’s population. It is a football-mad region, and a place teams from Europe regularly visit. Yet the national teams are bad. Like really bad.
Only one side, Indonesia, advanced to the third round of Asian World Cup Qualifying, and the odds are very long for them to make it out of their group. Of course, the story is nothing new. Only one Southeast Asian side has made it to the third round of continental qualifying in each of the past two cycles, and both times, those teams finished last.
No Southeast Asian country made it that far in 2006, 2010, or 2014. Even with the World Cup continuing to expand the number of teams that qualify, Southeast Asia remains a global afterthought.
Why can’t Southeast Asian Teams Qualify for the World Cup? There is plenty of blame to go around here. The two main culprits are the football associations themselves, a collection of mismanaged and overly politicized bodies. And then you have FIFA, who hasn’t actually improved access to the World Cup but simply added more teams to make it look as if access had been approved.
Let’s talk about this, shall we? FIFA loved celebrating the fact Oceania was guaranteed a place at the 48-team World Cup. There are 14 counties in that region, but Australia doesn’t count since it places in the AFC. Australia is also home to more than half of Oceania’s population. Essentially, a region with 13 countries and a little over 20 million people has direct access to the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asia has nothing but the needlessly long route of AFC qualifying.
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Honestly, as an Indonesian commenting. We Southeast Asians don't need representation in the World Cup as long AFC Qualifiers demonstrate that we're not good enough. We don't need to embarass AFC on the world stage. Our respective football federations simply need to improve. As an Indonesian, I think positive change is being done with our national team including diaspora players with exposure to European football. Furthermore, our engagement of diaspora players mixed with an improved grassroots system have been the long term projects implemented. I think my country is still far away from world cup qualification, however we now feel like we can finally dream qualification.
Diaspora players 😂😂😂😂😂
@@cek0792 you mean NATURALISISI?🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
@@Andre_Tarigan apa yg lucu bro?
@@Andre_Tarigan so what? they have the right to represent Indonesia by blood and the law approves it
@@Andre_Tarigan Bilang Aja Kamu Pendukung Towel
As ASEAN Football Journalist, my explanation is simple, because ASEAN countries lack the money to pursue them, not to mention the problem of corruption. The tradition of playing football is not with us. We are known to the world as a nation of spectators, not a haven of football talent. Unfortunately, we are not blessed with the culture of traveling as far as Africans when it comes to football to overcome the problem of lack of funds.
Do you think ASEAN teams would do better if they were able to utilise diaspora players. Eg. Vietnam can call up Jason Pendant (Rouen), Ibrahim Maza (Hertha), Sebastien da Silva (Laval) who are playing at a high level.
😂😢
Yes, it's interesting when we talk about naturalization policies. What must be noted is that naturalization is a short-term policy to improve the achievements of the national team. In the case of Indonesia, the naturalization program was successful because our government worked hand in hand with the federation. The federation cannot afford to work alone, because to become an Indonesian citizen, you have to give up your original citizenship and that is a difficult job considering the reputation of this country in the world of football.
What about other ASEAN countries? For a country with dual citizenship, it worked well, especially for the Philippines in women's football who managed to qualify for the World Cup. Meanwhile in Vietnam, a player who wants to be naturalized must play in the Vietnamese league for several years.
But in principle, naturalization (another name: taking diaspora players from all over the world) will work well, if the country's football foundation is starting to get better, like Morocco right now. Meanwhile in ASEAN, perhaps only Thailand has football facilities that meet standards and they routinely sends local players to pursue careers abroad, especially in Japan
my conclusion on my text. Yes, naturalization will have an impact on the achievements of national football teams in Southeast Asia, but it is not a long-term solution. The Federation must continue to build its own foundations for success
@@Sidelineholic What is your opinion on the last few years of Malaysia football, Malaysia football league?
Reminder that North Korea has qualified for the World Cup 2 times, making the quarter-finals in 1966. SEA has only qualified once if we're counting the Dutch East Indies in the '30s.
I didn't know that. Good to know JCS
He says that in the video regarding the Dutch East Indies.
@@NaikaVideoThe Dutch East Indies is today's Indonesia.
@@MuhammadIlham-xi7ll And now Indonesia with players "fairly similar" to Dutch East Indies time will make it to the World Cup "again", trust me!!!
@@MuhammadIlham-xi7ll exclude that Eastern part of that island
I am a Singaporean, and there is no way Singapore would ever do well in football. It all stems from our culture. Singapore is extremely competitive. Parents would fight to put their kids in top schools, pile them with tuitions, and other extra curricular activities which they think would 'benefit' their kids, such as piano lessons, art classes etc. Sports like football and others are perceived by the majority to be not realistic in our country. Professional sports in Singapore do not pay well, an average of $5000-$10000 SGD max per month. Plenty of white collar workers earn more than that. Another culture or behaviour of Singaporeans is that, we usually don't support our local sports scene much, especially football. A football fan in Singapore will be able to tell you everything about the English Premier League, but not a single thing about our local football league. Our stadiums are always empty, and there is basically zero marketing done to promote local football. Hence countries like Singapore will never ever make it to the world stage for football.
My friend, FIFA is connected to government. More money, more taxes expensive tickets. SG is not a corrupt nation, you guys put your own people first. 🫡
There's a slight shift in mentality, not a whole lot, where children with potential are selected for direct school entry. Their main goal is to focus on training instead of academics. While a long way to go, i see this as a step in the right direction. This would never had been possible during my younger days.
Thats exactly same with Korea and Japan man.
To nurture sporting champions, we need a culture that encourages people going their own way outside of a prescribed path of success, and a culture that loves and nurtures competitive sports, these two things are something Singapore will never have.
By standard of South east asia football Singapore is in Mid Better but number 1 reason Singapore will never become Power house in Football even in South East Asia is the size of Singapore Population theres no way with the population of Singapore it can compete with larger populated country even in South East Asian Nations for now they can beat the likes of Philippines which one of the weakest in South East Asia in football with Large populations but its a given because football in Philippines is still infant in popularity but in the long run Philippines may caught up with Singapore and may suprass them thanks of population and continue the successful Football program in there.
Thailand, currently ranked 100th in the world, has so much potential. They were ranked as high as 43rd in the world by FIFA in 1998. They have some great players playing for clubs in Japan and Belgium. It's the bureaucrats and higher-ups in FA Thailand that are holding them back from letting them be as good as, say, South Korea or Japan.
We should’ve never fired Coach Mano. I’m so heartbroken as a Thai-Canadian that we missed after 4 tiebreakers. I really wanted to see them in the World Cup live with my mother.
Atleast u-17 did qualified for 2 times (1997 and 1999), i hope we can do better
@@chelsea_3148 Agreed
Hopefully can see a ladyboy playing
@@Ramses060784 Their tips are certainly bigger than yours!
To be frank, saying China's football performance is too bad ignored the fact that they did qualify for one World Cup, which was in 2002. Sure, they were helped by Japan and South Korea hosting, but the Chinese still managed to overcome Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Iraq, both were/are no easy to play against. Doubt that Southeast Asian teams could have played like this against these teams.
The sad truth of Southeast Asian football, though, is many things combined:
1. They have an extremely ineffective system of talent recruitment. People love football, but they do not have the right system due to corruption and mismanagement. Thailand came closest in building a correct system, but still miles behind even China, and that's despite China is currently pathetic.
2. Some countries have their football politicised. Myanmar is such an example, where people are fanatic football lovers, but the system is deeply corrupt due to the influence of the Tatmadaw regime (which is why they have a civil conflict).
3. Some nations are deeply xenophobic and afraid of using naturalised players or even their own diasporic ones due to "pure blood matter". Vietnam represents this example when the country has been against using naturalised players for years. This made sense for some way but it could prove destructive in the future.
4. Economically, most of them are not rich, and those with rich economies... well, aren't football mad. Singapore and Brunei are such example, rich but disinterested in football.
Malaysia is as rich as Balkan countries and has population that are passionate about football yet still got beaten regularly by countries much-much poorer than theirs.
Singapore love football, but what can you expect from a city state with 4 million population?
@@sr3821 You know that Uruguay has 3.423 million right
@@sr3821u said that, but what about Iceland who qualified to 2018 world cup
I think other races are just quite stronger than ASEANS Aseans are small
Frankly though the REAL reason why we haven’t been able to qualify is simple: we just SUCK right now. Not for a lack of passion, but due to a combination of unfavourable genetics (generally shorter and less athletic, probably to adapt to the hot and humid tropical climate conditions) and dysfunctional and corrupted football federation when it comes to the domestic league and youth system (as you rightly pointed out). Thus when it comes to facing teams from other regions, its almost always the case that we are either not as tall, fast, strong and high endurance as them, or that we are not skilled enough individually and as a team, and most of the time its both.
Our best teams (THA, MAS, VIE, IND, SG) on a good day are only competitive with average 2nd tier teams from other AFC regions (central asia) and 3rd tier teams from good regions (west and east asia). Heck we might only be overall slightly better than south asia because most of their funding and best athletes are channeled to wards cricket, and we almost always struggle against decent teams from every other continent
So as much as I would appreciate us being given a shot at direct WC qualification in the name of representation, I DONT THINK WE SHOULD be given that privilege. There are countries that are far ahead of us and would be way more deserving but also left out because they are in a much tougher confederation (Europe, South America, Africa). If we care about merits and football quality, and that is what I think the WC qualification should be about, then we would have to earn it just like the rest of teams in asia. So I dont have a problem with the AFC and FIFA in that sense. Although I have to agree that having 4 qualification rounds (and multiple prequalifiers) is just absurd and they should somehow simplify it.
On a bright note, it does look like football is growing in SEA. It used to only be Thailand that was the most consistent, but in the past half decade Vietnam and Indonesia has also risen and we as a region are starting to challenge decent teams at a continental level (China, Uzbekistan, UAE, Bahrain, etc.) Hopefully we can keep up the pace and our inter-ASEAN pride and rivalry can really push ourselves to finally earn our place in the continental footballing map 🫡🤠
Tldr - we suck thats why
@@jasetran2186 at this point SEA countries just focusing much on Sepak Takraw and make this sports going global, this is the real native sports of SEA
I don't think "shorter and less athletic" is really a thing. South / Central America has plenty of shorties and they excel and football. Messi is a tiny child-man sized guy, and he is the greatest contemporary player.
@@vin9649 Based on what?
@@blairwich1935 they have fairly high stamina and usually,tougher body.Average SEA person are short and much slimmer,we would easily be crushed by teams who have way better physical advantages. You could try watching several matches of SEA teams,it is quite obvious n sad to see how its turning out
@@valeries0817 I don't doubt SEA is bad. I can see the results and what little they do when my country Australia goes against SEA teams. I just think if Messi (esp in his earlier years) was as skinny and short as he has been -- he wouldn't have done as well as he has. Also being skinny is correlated with high stamina anyway. Plus look at Japan... not a tall team and also skinny and is a top 20 team.
Indonesian here. You hit the nails with the politicization of both FIFA and each country's FA. From Indonesia alone, there's at least one or two generations whose talents were robbed and ignored because of instability, corruption, and gross incompetence by Indonesian FA (PSSI). On the brighter side, it seems the last few years it has much improved, with the head of PSSI being someone with actual experience (owner of Oxford United, DC United, and former chair of Inter Milan) instead of mostly political appointee. Compare the record and tape of Indonesian NT from 3 years ago with now, it's night and day.
There is one thing that was not mentioned in the video, but I believe contribute highly to the underachievement of Indonesian NT. This may have changed in the past few years, but for the most part, the football culture in Indonesia is more of watchers, not players. We love football, grow up loving to watch and play football, but once we become parents we don't choose to invest much in football for our children. What that means is that parents would rather spend their extra resource (time and money) on the education, extra tutoring, courses, etc for their children rather than buying them proper football kits and building/maintaining the local pitch. Education and schooling have been the proven way to lift ourselves out of poverty after centuries of colonization, while playing football is fun and nice and all it most likely won't help pay the bills. This is a culture issue not just for Indonesia but for many other Asian countries. To address this, it will take more than just PSSI to invest in infrastructure so those barriers to playing football are reduced. We also need our whole education system to be better for not just those who can afford it, but for everyone so parents don't feel obligated to spend significant portion of their income for private tutoring.
Malaysian here, we have it way worse. Congrats on the recent progress neighbors 🤝
Heck you made it pretty far for the 3rd round world cup qualifiers. For SEA to do that is pretty good.
Now when it comes to the Women's World Cup, Southeast Asia has had better luck getting nations to qualify for that tournament especially since 2015 when the tournament was expanded to 24 teams & then in 2023 to 32. Thailand qualified for the 2015 (where they beat Ivory Coast 3-2) & 2019 tournaments & both the Philippines & Vietnam qualified in 2023 with the Philippines beating hosts New Zealand 1-0 in a shock upset. With the Philippines at least, their chances of making future Women's World Cups are increased significantly by the fact that they are starting to recruit Filipino Americans from the college game in the US to play for the national team & investing in quality coaching.
philippines used half breeds it should not count
Let's just hope Indonesia can go further this time.
they will not. They will have a meltdown because they are south east asians
Only an American will complain about "representation" 😂. This is the World Cup not a Netflix series pal. You're either good enough to play or you're not. The real issue that needs to be talked about is the why that they're not good enough
Your suggestion that FIFA should open a spot for one SEA/AFF team does not address the root issue which is lack of funding, incompetent and corrupt FAs, improper football development, lack of good infrastructures, etc. That suggestion is not a cure, but rather a painkiller. It doesn't heal you, it just make you temporarily feel less hurt.
+ non athletic genetic pool.
Generally, we in SEA are just short, lower ratio body muscle mass, slower pace. An arabian import player could send our most of SEA pro player flying by a body check/collision.
the AFF is also corrupt intstitutions. it's nothing but cash cows for big betting companies based in Singpore and Malaysia.. They don't care about football. they only care about money.
AFF was formed meant to improve SE Asian fottbal, but turn out to be money makers for betting mafias... If AFF create healthy football competitions in SE Asia. i believe SE Asian football will imporve a lot.
Not to mention that Kids in SE Asia are told to study hard. Not to play football. because Sports in general are not a good career. can't make you rich.
You forget that the only Southeast Asian nation to have been truly competitive in World Cup... is Australia. Yes, *Australia* , I do not lie. Australia, a country in the Oceanian region with nothing to do to ASEAN, but is part of the Southeast Asian football sphere because the geography and football reasons, has played in six FIFA World Cup, including five in-a-row since 2006, and twice advanced past the group stages and put up strong performances against the likes of Chile, France, Serbia, Ghana, Italy, Argentina, Croatia and Brazil. Despite football is just the fourth or fifth most popular sport in Down Under.
Instead of taking the advantage from Australia's ascension to the AFF, Southeast Asian countries decided to exclude Australia from playing in the senior AFF Championship in a secret ban, despite AFF Cup being a miniature regional tournament, even though Australia has long expressed desire to help Southeast Asian football considering it is the only AFF nation capable at playing in World Cup. This mindset showed just how bad Southeast Asian football is.
But we never be proud of your WC qualified because you never attend our AFF cup. We don't need to be shared your honor. Tks
Australia is never be a part of SEA 100% they just a stray white people and whatever the reason they get Into AFF
@@hientrinhle6160 I am not Australian. I am Vietnamese and I am telling the truth. ASEAN banned them, not the other way around.
@@diomuda7903 ok tôi cho là Úc bị cấm tham gia nhưng cũng không có ai ở ĐNA nào nhận vơ tự hào mỗi khi Úc thành công . Đơn giản bạn hãy hiểu là ĐNA chấp nhận úc đăng ký vào là làm theo.ý muốn của liên đoàn AFC. Có lẽ khi nào Úc được xuất hiện tại Aff cup thì ĐNA sẽ chúc mừng thành tích WC của Úc.
@@hientrinhle6160 Cái suy nghĩ đấy đủ giải thích sao Đông Nam Á yếu kém. Nên nhớ rằng chính Nhật Bản và Hàn Quốc ủng hộ Úc vào châu Á và Đông Nam Á. Nếu nói như vậy, sao ko đổ lỗi Nhật Bản và Hàn Quốc?
I think this video has the wrong angle. The basis of the video should be more like "The FIFA confederations suck", because an expansion of the tournament doesn't mean improving access to specific regions, that requires an overhaul of the confederations which is a separate issue.
I've actually done this, based on the international windows leading up to the 2018 World Cup, looking at what an East Asia Pacific confederation and West Asia confederation would look like. Recently I've started to wonder if the "West Asia" element should include the Arabic countries of North Africa.
we should not even call arabic countries as asian
They just aren't good at football, period. They are very passionate about it but they just aren't good.
Exactly, the answer is lack of talent.
@@minhaj9802lack of talent is due to lack of investment and development.
Grassroots development is the recipe for discovering talent and making it flourish.
Cause indonesians are dark short people
As a SEAtizen. I agree, Kids here are not blessed with opportunities to atleast play football. No available fields, No available trainers, No marketing.
@@dachosenone207 Not really, many poor countries in Africa would destroy the richer SEA countries. Yes economics and opportunities play a part but talent is the key here
Excuse me but why the heck should Japan, South Korea or Iran have to miss out so that a weaker team from Thailand, Indonesia or Singapore can go?
That's a ludicrous request!
South America has only 10 member nations in Conmebol but the reason they have 4,5 or even possibly 6 now slots is because it would make no sense for Brazil to miss out so that the USA can go if the USA can't progress through Concacaf's qualifiers.
If the USA can't beat Mexico or Costa Rica or Panama then why should they take a slot away from a team in South America that would easily qualify pretty much every time were they to be in North America.
Take Venezuela for instance - They've never qualified for a World Cup because they're in Conmebol, even with Conmebol's excessive number of slots compared to member nations!
Venezuela loves baseball more than football, which made them the oddball of South America. It's only recently with the emergence of football talents that Venezuelans became more interested.
well with that logic, lets just make it a bloated Euro v Copa America. In every WC since a few decades, there will always be a weaker team on paper that qualified despite or because of stronger team stay home. AFC is just too big, Asia is hugee.
@@wenderis There are 46 teams in AFC Qualification for the 26 World Cup, There are 55 teams in UEFA!
Asia may be huge geographically but a whole lot of that is taken up by China and India!
Indonesia, Pakistan and Iran are also big countries.
The current Asian Qualifiers, the likes of Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia probably wouldn't qualify every time if they had to qualify through UEFA but give UEFA an extra four slots and all four of those teams would have a good chance.
The problem with UEFA qualifying is very clearly that so few teams from Europe can actually get to the World Cup so at least a couple of teams who should be there won't!
AFCON has a similar problem with a lack of enough slots.
But I don't see that in Asian Qualifying as there's really not that many teams in the AFC who are good enough to be at a World Cup.
Same with Concacaf where really you only have a big three...The USA, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Canada have upset that big three recently but let's give it a few years before we decide to make it a big four and make sure this isn't a flash in the pan from Canada.
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I'll tell you what, Let Israel, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan into AFC Qualification and you can have another two slots.
@@luishernandezblonde It's still harsh that Bolivia's qualified for a World Cup {1994} and Venezuela hasn't.
But the big problem with Conmebol is that there's only 9 teams squabbling over 4 places {sometimes 5, maybe 6 now}.
If it was 16 teams squabbling over 7 places there'd be more chance for the likes of a Venezuela to get in to one of those 7 places.
But the fact is that Conmebol is overrepresented at every World Cup with just those 4 {or 5} places.
Because Europe, Africa and Asia have around 50 teams each trying to qualify.
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Even if you added Concacaf {32} and Conmebol {9} together you'd still have less teams trying to qualify than the AFC {46} and significantly less than UEFA {55} or AFCON {53}.
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Conmebol will have at least 6 teams at the 2026 World Cup; they also have a play-off spot so a good possibility that it will be 7 South American nations there out of the 9!
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Concacaf has three nations hosting the tournament who get in no matter what and another 3 slots so why not just merge Concacaf and Conmebol qualifying and give them the 9-12 slots.
If the likes of Mexico, Costa Rica or the USA can't qualify against the likes of Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela then they don't deserve to qualify!
@@franohmsford7548 fair comment.
Not only geographically, but population obviously.
If its only about competitiveness and spectacle, I agree just make it between Europe (+North Africa) v South America. It would be fascinating. The rest of the world just can enjoy this and we probably will. But don't call it the world cup. This is not baseball.
As Indonesian i will Never recognize that 1938 World Cup qualified no matter what, because that was happened when our country wasn't even existed yet and still under colony status
No, me myself only recognize that we just qualified to Olympic in 1956 and never qualified to World Cup yet
Dutch East Indies =/= Indonesia
Good, keep your opinion to yourself lol.
@@slayer8790 okay
well FIFA says otherwise so
@@gilangh1780 don't care much and not so make a proud, better if we can Qualified to WC someday under the name of Indonesia then Dutch Indies
FIFA:Indonesia is the first Asian country to take part in the World Cup.....!!!

SEA teams are loading up the team with foreign dual-nationality players in order to stay competitive. 2 things I'd blame for low-quality local players: academies and nutrition. Have you seen what rural Thai kids have for lunch?
Football and sports in general don't make good career in SE Asia. it can't make you rich.. that's why parent are hesitate to send their kids to sports. they prefer study.
Doesnt' matter if they have enough nutritions or good academy. if it don't have good future for their kids, parents won't let them kids play sports.
Singapore is already rich. kids consume enough nutritions. but the not competitive in any sports, because the reason i mentiond above.
Indonesia didn't provide the dual-nationality card. It's the Indonesia FA that invited the "Player" or per request, then after some verification that they're indeed having "Indonesian-blood", soon the Indonesia FA & Indonesia Goverment will work with them to get ID as Citizenship of Indonesia so they can play with Indonesia NT.
If they don't have the blood, or never spent years in our land (Indonesia) then Indonesia will not process them.
have you seen what africans eat? im sorry this resources excuse is BS. North Korea literally qualified twice and that is more that southeast Asia. The reason is plain and simple we don't have the genetics for it.
Yes, whilst tolerance or even acceptance of multiple passports is the global trend - nearly three out of four United Nations members permit multiple citizenship (for adults) - the (defiant) holdouts to this trend are generally in Asia.
There is a lack of football culture. More people do not equate to more talent. Football is considered merely a pastime in many Southeast Asian countries, unlike for example Brazil where it is seen as an opportunity to change livelihoods and escape poverty and the favelas. Your attitude towards the game is different that way. Live to eat or eat to live is what I would like to equate this to. Mismanagement and corruption are not exclusive to Southeast Asia; if anything, they are worse in a handful of countries in Africa and Latin America. However, many of these countries can still remain competitive.
Southern Africa may have been the closest equivalent to Southeast Asia. These countries are simply not competitive except a handful of nations, and that included South Africa and Angola, despite far more favourable climate. Latin America, on the other hand, is too broad when you have Mexico to Argentina, yet the majority of them are football fanatics. It's still easier to name a Mexican football talent than any good Southeast Asian example, explain much.
futsal is popular in south east asia, Thaialnd, Indonesia, and Vietnam are one of the best in Asia
We Indonesian dont have Brazillian mentality,going to europe to get more money then marrying supermodel, everytime party,or even to participate in World Cup because means you will eat food which completely different,language barrier,culture barrier,you dont do this dont do that 😅 were never ready for that kind sacrifice 😂
@@RanjengCisituFamily we cant marry a super model we are southeasian, at least for men. our women don't have that problem.
@@rafiy7150 why is that? maybe 7 a side would work.
They're just not good enough. If the WC qualifying criteria were just national team fan support, Malaysia and Indonesia would qualify for every WC. However, the talent on those teams just isn't WC caliber. Vietnam and Thailand have also shown potential at times but then regressed.
I would have the AFC absorb the OFC and then start an "AOFC" Nations League. It would have two halves: an eastern half comprising of teams from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania and a western half composing of teams from Central Asia, South Asia and Western Asia. Southeast Asian teams would have more competitive matches against teams from outside their region.
EDIT: I've just watched your video and I respectfully disagree with your argument. We want the 8-9 best teams in the AFC making it to the WC. That typically does not mean teams in Southeast Asia. However, I believe Uzbekistan will be the first Central Asian team to feature in a WC in 2026. They're good enough to qualify.
Or You might called it Asian Pacific Football Conferation.
I like that idea too but the drawback to that suggestion is that the Asian Pacific confederation will be much weaker than the Western one. Almost all of the Oceanian (and some SEA) teams are really bad. Compare that to the western confederation that has more competitive teams. The really weak teams there would just be most of the South Asian ones. The lack of competitiveness is not ideal for teams like Japan, South Korea, and Australia.
New Zealand wouldnt like it lol, they have one spot already at the world cup
I would like this for most OFC countries as we hardly ever play teams outside of the region. It's only NZ that dominate and the rest of us that play for second. So for us it will help a lot and we'll see how we compare to ASEAN teams. I'm just not sure what benefit ASEAN teams would get. Maybe having more teams they can beat? If we came with our direct qualification then maybe that would help but I can't see any ASEAN team taking that off NZ.
Let's run a hypothetical League A for the "AOFC" or "APFC" Nations League. Based solely on July 2024 FIFA rankings, it could appear this way...
East
Group A: Japan, China, New Zealand, Vietnam
Group B: South Korea, Australia, Thailand, North Korea
West
Group A: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Oman
Group B: Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, UAE
The West would overall be stronger than the East, but there isn't a massive gap between the two sets of groups. North Korea is much better than its 110 ranking, and I believe New Zealand is a Top 50 team in disguise. As for the two Southeast Asian teams in the groups, they would be facing much tougher competition than they face in ASEAN Championships. Over time, this would only serve to improve their level of play.
Well, the reason why the SEA countries never qualify for the FIFA World Cup is because the SEA countries don't have the money to invest in football, coupled with the fact that many Southeast Asian teams generally rely on their players in the local leagues (which is only comparable to the National League in the English football pyramid) in their national football team.
I mean seriously, as a Malaysian, despite I'm glad to see they are improving significantly and climbing the ranks since 2022, they are still held back from improving further thanks to the fact that those players of Malaysian diaspora were "forced" to play in the local leagues unlike Indonesia. Furthermore, Malaysia was struck by the fact that the magnificent Kim Pan-gon had stepped down as the coach recently (Yes, I'm doubtful that Pau Marti Vicente can continue to help Malaysia to improve despite being Spanish-based for many years).
Very proud to read an articulate comment from a fellow 🇲🇾-sian
not just money man but genetics as well
@@AJayZy Sorry for the late reply, but you are welcome, my countryman!
As a Malatsian, I want to thank you very, very much for your brilliant commentary on the state of South East Asian football scene.
It should be noted that when Australia joined AFC in 2006, it was Japan and us Korea that agreed to support Australia's entrance and we remain the only Asian nations to have no issue with Australia's AFC membership. The rest of Asia simply viewed it with disdain. Yet our acceptance of Australia made the difference for us in World Cup.
Southeast Asian nations' nonsense dislike of Australia won't do them any good in return.
Australia competing in AFF ASEAN cup this year.
ASEAN is SE Asia if i'm not mistaken.
If Southeast Asians dislike Australia as you claim, explain why did they join and get accepted to compete in the ASEAN Championship every year since 2013
@@Isyayot Most Asians saw Australia as the remnant of Western or Russian imperialism (in case of Central Asia and Mongolia), a key reason why Australia wasn't allowed from playing in Asian football until 2000s. Japan and South Korea, however, had different interests and believed Australia joining would be beneficial.
@@luishernandezblonde I'm not familiar with the rest of Asia, so I have no comment on that. However, my point is that the OP claims Southeast Asian nations dislike the inclusion of Australia in the AFC, which contradicts the fact that Australia has been welcomed and accepted to compete in the AFF (Southeast Asian Football Federation) every year since 2013
@@Isyayot I think he is saying that Southeast Asia welcomed Australia only after Japanese and Korean pressures. That means that ASEAN didn't invite Australia to join as expected, but it was more like persistent Japanese and Korean efforts.
What you're saying is that the World Cup should have some DEI participants no matter how awful they are. You've just acknowledged that "Soccer in SE Asia sucks". So why should they be entitled to a seat at the WC just for the sake of inclusion and representation? The WC already has so many horrendous lopsided matches during the group stage. Why add to the sorry spectacle even more? Let's face it, the best SEA team would get massacred by the worst Euro team, 8-0. Let SEA teams first get better, then they could join the WC party legit.
Is thailand not indonesia bro,now the best team in south east asia is indonesia
@@hairiyanur3632 ??? did you don't understand what he is saying or what? your name sounds Indonesian so i will talk in indonesia. Dia ga ngomongin DEI masalah gender bang, dia ngomongin DEI masalah harus ada representasi padahal ga ada prestasi. Ente juga ga mau kan ada kontingen SEA di world cup cuman gara2 kasian ga ada representasinya, bukan karna emang mereka lolos penyisihan. Yang doi bilang tuh ni yutuber udah tau kalo bola di SEA itu masi jelek tapi kenapa nyaranin harus dikasi jatah slot? Yang ada makin kebantai. Makannya dia bilang mending memperbaiki permainan biar bisa masuk world cup jalur skill bukan karna kasian. Ane malah bingung ente ngapa jadi nyenggol thailand padahal ga ada disebut
Problem is I imagine is the same for many developing countries. We all played football as kids but once we reach 14 we pretty much just focus on school and beyond.
There are no academies, there is no system to develop young talent beyond 12 years old.
Another reason is that scouts are more focused on South America and Africa. SEA has never produced a world class player, so we can't blame them.
Thr only good players I can name from Asia are all from South Korea and Japan.
It's not about economic development alone as many SEA countries are more developed than Cote d'ivoire, Cameroon (no offense, it's a fact), yet struggles to produce talent.
not too mention sometimes nepotism and money is the requirement to become a pro.
The reason the AFC Qualifying has so many stages is because it doubles as AFC Asian Cup and AFC Cup qualifying.
Also, your solution neglects sending a team to the intercontinental playoffs
This is the sort of sports talk I want more of. Nobody in America probably even realizes this is an issue! Thank you.
Here in the Philippines people care more about basketball than any other sport. Everywhere I go there's always basketball equipments and merches of NBA players. It's just so fucking sad because I'm one of the only football fans in there.
same po
The truth is that the majority of Filipinos don't like football because they find it boring. Thats why it is rare to see football fields unlike basketball where every barangay has, sometimes 2-3 courts. Also basketball is easier to play than football
@@GeorgeAceAlmerato and also more achievements…
@@gekkogipsy519 It is also rare to see Filipinos playing football; yes there are some but only few.
Hindi naman talaga daw sikat ang Basketball dati kundi Baseball sabi ng mga matatanda nung bata pa ako kaya lang sumikat ang Basketball sa pinas ay dahil sa continue success nito sa International Tournaments ie: World Championship naging 3rd placer once at Asia Championship both FIBA at Asian Games noong 50s at 60s Champion ang Pinas ALAM NINYU NAMAN ANG MGA PINOY PAG MAY LABAN KUNG SAAN NI-REPRESENT ANG PINAS TODO SUPORTA then na Commercialize na Liga both Amatuer ( MICAA ) at Pro ( PBA ) which na enganyo ang mga kabatan maglaro dahil pwedeng pagkakitaan and then further popularize sa masa thru sa sugal ie: Ending 👈 eto dahil diyan ko na laman ang sport na Basketball nung bata ako at nagka-interes panoorin ang basketball games dahil sa ending😂😂😂
Australia are the most southern and of the most eastern members of the AFC. Australia have qualified for ever World Cup since becoming AFC members and won the 2015 Asian Cup
Geographically speaking, Australia are in Oceania and the fact that they're in the ASEAN Football Confederation is absurd.
@@ponrebirthOFC is so bad, the socceroos wanted better competition and more money to grow their program
@@tdubmusketeer Especially when you think back to that world record setting score line of 31-0 when they played against american somoa. That shouldn't be happening. The rest of OFC were clearly not on their level (i'm ignoring NZ).
@@ponrebirthAustralia is a large country, with over 50% of it closer to SE Asia then South Pacific Oceania.
@@tdubmusketeerexactly it was a win win. By 2002 our governing body wasn’t making money to the point they could pay their players flights to travel from Europe to play these Oceania sides. Had to field players from a struggling NSL at the time.
🇻🇳 and 🇵🇭 Womens Team reached Womens World Cup 2023. I mean, that should count for something right?
I think you're not a Football, you try to compare Women's Football!!!
Most of the #Filipinos would rather care to qualify at the "Basketball World Cup" by FIBA.
#FIFA & #FIBA are the 2 difference of each sports as confederations...
@@miggymiggy1553 I didn't mention basketball at all though. The video says Southeast asia doesn't rach the FIFA world cup, but Vietnam and Philippines (both SEA Countries) reach FIFA though womens World, still football. I didn't mention FIBA or Basketball on my comment
Women's football has very little expectation to follow though fan support is increasing.
Women football is not serious, nobody want to watch it on TV. do they even have a league in viet or phill?
No one takes women's football seriously, unless you want to see Lehmann's ass 💀
Indonesia will qualify from round 4..i saw how they played, they have chance to go through to 4th round..they are lucky having 2million Indonesia descents living in the Netherlands..otherwise, it would be impossible to get qualified to the world cup for any SEA teams.
as a real football fans and come from indonesia, yes, i want to see my national football team play in WC, but not due to FIFA create a specific SEA region to qualify, we want the best team that play in FIFA world cup, it should be stay with the best 32 countries, no need to create a special region like SEA, or central asia to accomodate countries for these region to play in WC
Yeah that's fair, I mean its better to be like "asian" than "southeast Asia" regionally indeed we're in southeast Asia but like "ASIA" Is good enough, you know what I mean??😂
@@freedomkilledbysociety6509 As an Indonesian, I don't consider myself an Asian at all. I'm just an Indo-Pacificer.
@@hanggaraaryagunarencagutuh7072bruh what ? the only pacific islander in Indonesia are the Papuans. Pacific Islander tend to have big body just look at them in rugby union or league. also with your logic that would fit into the West narrative that Asians are just Japanese,Koreans and Chinese lol.
@@xoxooxxo3835 You're misreading some of my words, which is written as "Indo-Pacific", not "Pacific".
Setuju, pemikirannya agak lain abang di video ini. Tapi saya senang banget Australia masuk ke AFF, regional makin terpacu untuk berkembang lebih cepat.
Good video bro - this could have been another chance for a collab lol. I was born in Malaysia and even though I’ve lived in New Zealand longer, I’m still essentially Malaysian at heart - watching Malaysia at this year’s AFC Asian Cup and the first part of WC 2026 qualifiers was so much fun (apart from the thrashing by eventual finalists Jordan). I know the Malaysian football scene pretty well - it’s a long story but you can sum it up like this -
Lots of talent, no development, too much corruption at the top. Malaysians love football far more than even badminton which is their most successful Olympic sport - but the English Premier League gets 1000x more coverage than the local leagues. 1 in 10 have intimate knowledge of who plays in their Malaysian domestic league.
Southeast Asia is really the sleeping giant that needs to be woken up. It could be a mini UEFA if done right. The money, population and talent is there. It just needs to be unlocked the right way.
In Malaysia, JDT FC is the way to go. But it’s like a modern city amidst a slum.
Sorry, this is just stupid!
World Cup is about finding the best team, its not about the kind of representation you present in your video. If you can´t beat countries with less than 1 million people( Kuwait, Qatar, Iceland etc), then you dont deserve to be in the world cup. You can apply the same logic to south asia with 1,5 billion people, but the standards there are even worse than SEA. Your argument is not fair to countries that actually manage their football well. Its also potentially dilluting the standard and quality of World Cup even more, its bad enoug with 48 teams
I would love to see Thailand or Vietnam in a World Cup, but they should deserve it by beating strong oppenents in qualifiers and not by quota.
Your proposal sounds like a football version of DEI
Yeah it would be more fun to watch our national team overcome all odds defeating strong opponents too😁
Real reasons:
1. Most of Southeast Asia covered in rice fields with houses and shops crowded along narrow roads. They don't have access to decent football fields, and the ones they have don't have nice grass like in Europe, and are often flooded out during the rainy season.
2. They wear sandals too often, which prevents most from learning to run properly from an early age. Need to wear proper shoes or go barefoot like Brazilians from the favelas.
3. People who never played football want to get on those football associations because FIFA hands out millions every year to each member country.
As a Malaysian, I agree with your assessment. And like the commenter above from Indonesia, I don't want to see my country play in the World Cup if they're not good enough to represent Asia. For the time being, I'll support them when it comes to regional tournaments
Jika kamu lolos piala dunia itu artinya kamu kuat, apa kamu fikir lolos piala dunia di rounde 3 ini lawan nya timur Leste, di situ ada jepang, jika kamu bisah lolos itu artinya kita tidak lemah😕
Filipino here.
The women's are the pride currently of the Philippines in terms of football but I hope the men's will catch up
Yes, that USA women third reserve team.
@@annas.1986 ok Dutch East Indies
@@agentg11 he or she is right thou..
@@jmgonzales7701 but what if other Caribbean countries its fine?
Jamaica?
Women tournament are easy.
Grass root problem. ASEAN countries do not have resources to train young talents and provide them a domestic competitive environment to grow like Japan or Korea.
That is one of them.
no, its just lack of talent. Alot of African countries are more corrupt and less resources yet they would crush southeast Asia even rich like Singapore and brunei.... We just don't have the genetics for it.
@@jmgonzales7701Why would Southeast Asians not have the genetics with football? If anything football is probably one of the least genetically-reliant sport out there, it's all about skill and coordination.
I've been thinking recently, with the oil countries sucking up all the air in AFC, should the ASEAN countries (and perhaps East Asia and Australia) join and strengthen OFC?
LOLno - I can tell you that'd be a bad idea because they're not giving OFC more than 2 slots in the WC and with NZ already ring-fencing 1 slot....
@@MrBlazemaster525if I recalled well, Oceania is the weakest region in FIFA rate not only their overall countries rank in the table but also their performance on world stage, not surprising, beside they don't have a much talent resources they mostly a rugby centric countries
@@MrBlazemaster525 New Zealand will say thank you and join the AFC while the top OFC/AFF team will still have to battle Uruguay to go to the world cup. Lots of travelling and no world cup qualification for our sucky region.
Myanmar(Burma) could've qualified in their golden era. But they didn't even join the competition during that time unfortunately.
Then it was not a golden era!😆
@@porferiokabisig1322 wdym?
@@porferiokabisig1322 what the definition of your gold era then?
As one who regularly is in Asia for afc afcl etc, the answer is simple more games equals more sponsoring and more Money
Despite some matches ups who are very well received in attendance and other factors most games are not these games lose the federation money to compensate for this sponsoring massively needed and to perfect it more games
The answer in short more games mean more sponsoring slots means more money
You would think Singapore, rich city state that it is, would have a bunch of "ringers" the same way Gulf States do in cricket.
They're too proud of their origins to do it - at least the Chinese section of their community
To play for Singapore you need citizenship, and since we don’t allow dual citizenship, you have to give up your original citizenship to apply, and most footballers don’t want to do that
Singapore used to have a bunch of foreigners play in their team back in the 2000s and the early 2010s. Note that these players played in the Singaporean league for a few years before they were naturalized.
Per FIFA rules, player naturalization is allowed if the player were born in that country, have parents or grandparents from that country, or if the player has stayed in the country for at least five years. Of course, the naturalization has to comply with the target country's rules. One can't randomly naturalize any players they like. Timor-Leste tried that during the 2018 World Cup qualifying by naturalizing a bunch of Brazilians and had all their results annulled.
@@sawagaaz And the biggest elephant in the room for football development in Singapore - super rigid mandatory conscription.
singaporeans focus on studies more than sports
An old story from the Franco-Thai War of 1940-41 may help explaining a lot about Southeast Asian mindset. When France surrendered to Germany and Japan in 1940, the Thais realised it would be their time and they quickly launched multiple surprise attacks against French troops in Indochina, resulted in capturing a sizeable part of the territory. But as the Thais gained initial successes, they became complacent, failing to realise the main French Army was still intact and about to mount the offensive. Ultimately the Thais started losing land gained to the French and even lost in the naval battle of Ko Chang, which risked presenting France a reason to invade the country, before Japan jumped in and demanded ceasefire that the Thais salvaged their pride.
If you understand this story, you may understand Southeast Asian situation isn't limited to just FIFA World Cup alone.
Tuh dengar tuh para Local Pride, check tuh menit 00.50 - 01.10!. Sepak bola Asia tengggara memang sama sekali ga diperhitungkan di level dunia. Dianya masih bicara Asia tenggara lho, ada Thailand yg sebenarnya cukup mengharumkan Asia Tenggara selama ini tapi itupun ga dianggap, apalagi Indonesia sebelum Coach Shin ama pemain2 diasporanya.
Eh Malah bersikeras seakan memang di masa lalu kita "Macan Asia"...Macan asia dimana, kalau memang benar iya seharusnya dari dulu kita da juara Piala Asia berkali2, masuk Piala Dunia berkali2 tapi kenyataany?..makanya sekarang dukung coach Shin, times Sekarang ama federasi bersama pemerintah juga dah berjuang bersama2 tuk bikin sejarah di dunia sepak bola. Yakin gw kita bisa lolos ke piala dunia, bukan saja lolos tapi benar2 bakal memberikan tantangan ke tim2 kelas dunia di Piala Dunia!
well, if SEA get at least 1 direct spot on the WC, i can assure you that most of the times it will be Australia joining the WC thru SEA spot since Australia is in the SEA Federation (AFF) as well
Australia is only in the AFF because they don't want to spend money on sending their men's and women's youth teams to other parts of the continent. The Kangaroos have played in a grand total of zero ASEAN Championships since joining and the national team has no presence regionally. Besides, if they wanted an easy World Cup berth, they would go back to Oceania, and it's now guaranteed bid.
@@thetouchbackthe OZ's U16 just won the AFF U16 cup last month and their U19 today started their journey in the U19s. so maybe the senior team will also joined the next edition of the AFF cup, to test their "B" team since the AFF Cups always not being held on a FIFA matchday calendar
@@thetouchback You forgot that it was ASEAN that forbade Australia from playing. Australia could not play because a stipulation in 2013 (the year Australia joined AFF) ban Australia from ever playing unless one of the ASEAN country can qualify for the World Cup, which is certainly a huge mistake. Australia wanted to play, but ASEAN nations banned them.
@@Pangandaran halo from future tournament AFF U19 Australia get rank 3 bro
Comically complicated Qualifiers 3:03 - 'which are very biased towards the countries with a more developed soccer set-up'
You are literally answering your own question - the countries with a more developed soccer set-up
Why is it difficult for Southeast Asian countries to enter the World Cup because they have been indoctrinated to lose before going to war, they are always pessimistic when meeting countries whose rank is above them, but now in Indonesia since the football association is held by Mr. Erik Thohir, he always encourages the players that we can fight against countries that are above us, as long as we have to be brave and believe in ourselves that we are the same and can even beat them. That is the progress of football in Indonesia now.
no its not about mentality its about realistic. We loose because we suck.
@jmgonzales7701 our national team used to always lose at all ages when facing the Korean or Japanese team, because in our minds, we didn't believe we could compete with them, so we lost before even fighting, due to mental errors. And now our mindset has changed, we will face anyone, as evidenced by the AFC U23 Cup, where we defeated Korea and made it to the semifinals. This is real.
@@Herisubagja02 u need less of mindset and more on talent. Mindset wont get u anywhere u can have the mindset of julius cesar and it wont change that we southeast asians are slow, tiny and weak.
The solution for the ASEAN countries to play in the World Cup is trying compete with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Jordan, UAE, Oman, and China.
is that level
This is so true. I don’t think it’s just politics or economic reasons. Let’s be honest, it simply the lack of size, speed and strength of Southeast Asian players.
filipinos has alot of speed and strength tbh its just the lack of passion to the game
To say Indonesia is a rank outsider is an understatement, especially since their national football team literally beat and stopped the South Korean football team from competing in the 2024 Olympics for the first time in 36 years.
🤦♂️. That was south korea u23 national team. Not the south korea national team.
Also, indonesia u23 beat south korea u23 because of luck and the referees favour the indonesia team a lot.
@@eqbal3906 disagree, the statistic of the match showed Indonesia dominated the whole game, but yeah, I forgot it was U-23
1. Won it though shootout so it is draw by official records.
2. Not an A-match.
3. Many Indonesians on U23 was also on their first team(national team) while Korean team has zero, actually way far from national team quality. Actually U23 players playing for foreign club was excluded, only k leagues youth played. Lee from PSG and Bae who won stoke player of the year didn’t played.
Yes but still able to pass through Korea is great achievement so you can be proud of that but it ain’t smth to brag for like years to years. Trust me.
Was Madrid vs city draw because it's shootout?@@worldcollides4197
@@Isyayot You basically beat the Korean under 23 B team.
Dawg you have such a horrible take, why should these “under represented” areas deserve their own qualifying spot? To lose 9-0 at each group stage game? DEI is stupid af and the best of each confederations should qualify to the WC to best represent their confederations, not just because we feel bad for them. We’re already gonna have teams that really shouldn’t be in a WC in 2026
DEI is not stupid. And Losing 9 - 0 each group stage? We never play in the world cup why do you assume we woud automatically get smacked
@bimosatriyotid6061 Because you're not good enough to get in through the current qualifying system. So, obviously you would get spanked by the best teams in the World. If you lose 4-0 to teams like Vietnam and Thailand, then Brazil and Spain will put at least 8 past you.
@@sebfox2194 Indonesia national team has developed, not much but it's there. Now it's Vietnam losing both home and away to Indonesia and they whined so much at press conference, trying to undermine Indonesia's football development off the pitch because they failed to win on the pitch.
i will answer the question as Thai
1. the football organization of Thailand faced corruption all the time, they rarely supported our player with moderate budget. Luckily, some football clubs are doing with their heart and support by own budget to develop players .
2. there is a priority system. even a player who play not well. he got an opportunity to play for national team over a better player because his dad is powerful
In 2023, finally Thailand got the woman who give us a light and hope again
as southeast asian, from malaysia. most asean countries are successful at badminton and hockey than football
India, Pakistan are the successful teams in Hockey in Asia with multiple Olympic medals, never seen Southeast Asian teams.
@@Albetroz1415 malaysia are successful in hockey while philippine succesful in boxing and basketball
@@ameEeeee3 kalo success di badminton sama hockey mana pingat emasmu? Mana gold olympic mu? 😂😂🤣🤣🤣
@@-M--MuhammadAryaAvrionza populirasi mewakali olympik di negara saya kurang dari kamu dan lain so
@@-M--MuhammadAryaAvrionza apa warna fifa puskas mu?
Just look at Transfermakt record, you will see why. They do have talented player like Chanathip and Quang Hai but their level is still very low to reach to World Cup. I mean Thailand recently lost against China lmao. Vietnamese football is at very bad mood recently too, they were kicked out of World Cup Asian qualifier.
1) They are not athletic. 2) They work/study a lot, play very little.
Well, that's the fact for Singaporeans.
It would be interesting if the world cup qualifiers were broken down to the 5 subdivisions of the AFC. With 8.5 spots available, let's say you give 1 for each of the EAFF, WAFF, SAFF, CAFA, and AFF and then pan-Asian final round for the last 3.5.
We also root for our national team here in Philippines, they just lack of support from the government. Many people here is hyping too if Philippines can qualify in Fifa World cup
And unlike the rest of ASEAN countries where football is the undisputed #1 sport, it is at best only 4th place in the Philippines!
As a person that grew up playing in Europe Italy near Monaco France that Cote Azure area but it's also Thai and living in Thailand now
Money and climate and culture
Thai best athletes go into muay Thai
Unlike Europe there's no route to grind and be a millionaire just by playing and being a phenomenal player in Thailand even the competition nearby isn't on par
There is not enough infrastructure
Children are too busy with school even if the infrastructure is there
And most of the time it's too hot to be playing outside all day long and beyond the sunlight part of the day like people do in Europe
Short story: "amateurism" .. for the league, football association, and the athletes.
i don't agree, South East Asian Countries had qualified for Futsal World Cup , Women's World Cup and the U-17, U-19, U-20 Women's and U-19,U-20 Men's World Cup
what about the actual fifa world cup and not just the youth tournaments?
@@goutamsaha8136 Phillippines,Vietnam And Thailand had qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015, 2019 and 2023 , so any question.
It's okay, personally i'm not offended. Our FA while trying to improve their football, they still hardly remove most of corrupted member. And they still had their strong influence even not being a top member. As you said it's full of politic stuff.
To bad for Philippines football is probably only the 5th most popular sports
@Hadc577 yeah i know.
Not enough funding.
Football association Malaysia image 😂
Even if they got enough funding they are corrupted and incompetent.
Another Malaysian
Maybe. Those countries just arent good enough. Maybe there needs to be a FIFA Nations League so like teams play like teams and pro/rel.
Nah, we don't need World Cup when we have so much passion on the AFF Championship every two years. Qualifying for the World Cup is less valuable than beating out rivals. We love publicity and attention, and the way to achieve that is to send 22 players into the field at the same time.
I think the reason is simply because Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran r just so dominant in Asia and those 4 teams alone r usually enough to fill the Asian slots for the WC
the reason why is because we refused to get rid of rice or decrease our daily amounts…look at our physical we’re so weak in asia cup…luckily we’re a little bit better in technicality compared to 5 years ago but still not enough to fight arab countries or even east asians
I would like to see more representation of Southeast Asia in world football, always when we talk about football in Asia, Korea and Japan stand out, and the countries of the Middle East, considering how popular football is in countries like Thailand, Indonesia or Viet Nam I think they are underrepresented
Thanks for the explanation 😊
Football is in the blood of every Latin Americans. Even the terrible ones like Chile, Peru, Honduras and Mexico also have ferocious football cultures.
Cannot see anything similar in Southeast Asia.
come here and look how we love a lot football
Football is naturally the culture of Latinos. There shouldn't be forceful indoctrinations on Southeast Eurasians and Indo-Pacificers to adopt this natural culture of Latinos or any other Romanic or European peoples.
“Boring and scripted.”
The World Cup feels predictable and lacks excitement, as only European or South American teams ever seem to win the tournament.
Club football is more predictable actually! All you gotta do is follow the money! 🤣🤣🤣
@ Club football, the Olympics, it’s all BS.
Well put, well researched
It's crazy that Iceland with population way less than most capitals in SEA has been qualified for the world cup.
I don’t think FIFA should ever make any changes that makes it so underrepresented countries get guaranteed access to the world cup stage. As an Indonesian football fan, I believe that only the best of the best should be at the world cup. Even if that means we won’t be there for maybe another 70 years. I would hate it if my country qualified for the world cup and took the spot of a more deserving nation.
Corruption is part of the culture here
I dont want my country to qualify for the world cup, just to be spanked by south american and european country😂..lets face..we are not good enough to beat the best team in asia..let alone the other continent😂
Football requires brains slightly more than brawn, that's why you see why some Asian teams flourish while others, Southeast Asian included flounders. I can tell you upfront that the Malaysian team when flustered will automatically play long ball that goes nowhere and do back passes to the goalie. Only Thailand rarely does that, opting to pass the ball around, denying the opponent possession which they then lose after a failed attempt to shoot for the moon!
Time will tell if Indonesia's naturalization plan reaps dividends though I'm not counting on that as realistically speaking, the economics of fielding 11 foreign born players of Indonesian descent of the highest calibre and keeping another 11 is highly unsustainable.
Indonesia is not stupid,Indonesia is making massive investments now,Renovating 22 stadiums to FIFA standards,Starting to use VAR in the Indonesian league,Indonesia is also serious about training young players,Indonesia is currently also collaborating with the Japanese Football Federation for the development of football and referees,Indonesia is also currently implementing a good refereeing system,The refereeing system that Indonesia is trying to use is the refereeing system in the English league.The goal is for referees to become better and good referees will make matches of high quality.And don't forget that the current chairman of the Indonesian Football Federation is the former owner of the Inter Milan club. (Erik Tohir)And the most important thing is that now the finances in the Indonesian football federation are very healthy due to the large number of sponsors coming in.With this massive investment, I see Indonesia's future as quite good.
@@MuhammadIlham-xi7ll Indo (and SEA as a whole) should have told the Saudi to get fucked and do their own host bid, even if they need Australia to assist in hosting a few games.
11 countries if you counted Timor Leste as AFF member.
Even though football is by far the most popular sport in Thailand. The game we actually play commonly is futsal which we've done quite well in the sport. Football infrastructure for grassroot level is so bad we cannot pass the ball because the uneven pitch. Our small physique is a big disadvantage and our skill is also not as good as the others. It's ok that we don't get the ASEAN quota because we'll only embarrass ourselves.
This is the most SmartASS explantation I've discovered about SEA football
This question is very simple 😂 It's because people who play football well in Thailand go on to become office workers or deliver parcels. As for the 11 Thai players, they are considered heirs of football association executives and Thai League club owners. There may also be descendants of influential people in those cities who are on the national football team.🤦
I have been to Thailand a few years ago as a tourist so I know what happened to Thailand's football. The Thai League is the richest football league in Southeast Asia, so generally people will expect Thailand to have more talents.
Problem is in Thailand, clubs overpay their foreign players. Thai clubs bought an insane amount of footballers from other countries, then overpay them. It's often referred as "Mexico syndrome" in relations to the Liga MX in Mexico that suffered from the same problems. This might have detrimentally impacted Thai players and cost them chances to perform competitively.
sementara di indonesia sebaliknya, pemain yang sudah berlebel timnas walaupun masih bermain di kelompok umur tapi gaji naik derastis di clubnya, mereka sudah merasa cukup bisa beli motor mobil rumah di usia belasan tahun dan pada akhirnya stuk jalan di tempat saat masuk usia 23 tahun. padahal saya lihat talenta pemain muda indonesia sangat bagus
@@wangseng-gn3ccTapi kalau logic nya begitu, di Eropah/Africa pun sama kan? Japan, S.Korea..
Saya dari Malaysia! 😇
Their government don't take the game seriously.
to put it into perspective, I remember asking my dad to pursue football, I was 8 at the time and good enough to play for my school, but my dad said No, there is not enough money playing football..
There was a suggestion some years back that the A-league should consider expanding with two Malaysian teams for added viewership and improved sponsorship money. I'm not surprised that didn't work out.
what if A league merged with the thai league, I guess Bangkok FC would make the top 2 in the league, theyre so good in the ACL, Thais are also a big market to get more viewers
because they didn't give a fvck to be proffesional football player(both mentality and skill) ,getting middle range of salary is just enough for them.and football association didn't give a shit ieither, to improve the system (training facilities,coaching skill,or even hire some nutrition expert).
Respectfully I disagree with that initial point about FIFA not doing its job by not increasing access to underrepresented regions. It is the World Cup after all, and spots in it are highly coveted and only won on merit. Historically you have had to be significantly better than the rest of your continent to win the honor of representing your continent. The World Cup is different than the Olympics. The Olympics hands out free competition spots to every nation if they choose to take them in the name of global unity and participation, which is fine, that's their mission. I think that the World Cup's purpose is different. While it does bring together the world, first and foremost its purpose is to determine the world's best team. IMO certain regions within continents are not entitled to representation at the finals. If they can make it through the qualifiers and prove themselves, then great, they've proved themselves and deserve their spot. If not, I don't think the burden lies with FIFA to make sure every single corner of the world is represented.
We have the smallest biological body in the world . Not only in FB but also in other Olympic sports we are still so weak ,too. Absolutely no hope for competitions. Are you Ok with this?☹
That's not really true. if you were right then we won't have 6 footers playing Volleyball. What we are lacking is the attitude and interest to create good or high quality athletes in Football. People in the regions don't see being a Footballers as a good way to make good livings yet(compared to South American countries like Argentina and Brazil).
I mean people are not serious enough and still flip flopping between other sports mostly due to the incompetence of the football federations for the most part I guess.
I am Indonesian, so I can testify that when parents has big or tall kids, people around them would rather tell them;"Hey you got tall kids, they should play Volleyballs or Basketballs, and the parents would do that, guiding them to "taller people sports"..Goshh like they have no idea that their kids can change their lives for good if they would have chosen football and be really good at it especially when they are big and tall (At least for now in Indonesian league or Thai and Vietnam leagues).
By the way If what you really meant was about us South East Asians were just too weak in sports and couldn't compete on the world level please check Badminton and see how Indonesia, Malaysia and in recent years Thailand perform in this sport. Or at least check the world ranking in Badminton men and women on how our athletes perform over the years in some of the most prestigious tournaments in Badminton like Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, All England Open. I know it's Badminton but it is a world Sport competition where certain countries from Asia and Europe like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Denmark, Spain, France, England are quite "competitive" if not dominating and if you are Badminton fans you know what I meant.
LoL this is not about genetics it is about the sport culture...
There's like 20 countries(all in Europe and South America) in the world with such culture and only 7 countries in the world that actually think about winning the world cup.
Asian countries don't have football culture because pretty much none european or south American countries didn't cared about football until close the 2000s when the world cup got popular, the same reason why the US also is so bad.
You ask why Southeast Asian countries are not in the World Cup? My answer is simple. As an Indonesian, I just want to say, Indonesians don't need to be the best in the world, you know, even the unemployed can eat every single day without government assistance 😀. It's just a matter of needs. If you need something, then your passion will emerge, but if everything is available to you then you will enjoy a relaxed life.
Even if Indonesia is now trying hard to get to the World Cup, it's just a matter of pride, not to make a living. Compare that to Brazilian players, in order to live, they have to become professional football players.
I remember meeting him in 1996 during a meet at Gateshead.
Although he wasnt from the North East of England, he was adopted as one of our own and still calls Newcastle home.
I wasnt, nor have I been a big Athletics fan, and I wasn't particularly good at Athletics in school, but I wasn't bad at the Triple Jump as I loved watching Jonathan Edwards, and hoped I could emulate him, which mevee happened
As a Malaysia and Singapore fan from the USA, I am trying to say Southeast Asian nations don't have the quality to qualify for the World Cup, but I have a feeling that a Southeast Asian nation will be in the World Cup one day or in the future. 🇲🇾🇸🇬
Your variety of sport content is second to none.
Easy, greed and politics by the local feds and clubs make it so the best players never get to grow beyond the local game. Vietnam for example makes to too comfortable for players to want to challenge themselves. And when they do move players, it's to places they have no business going. The acceptance of overseas nationals will help open things up.
Another issue with Vietnam is poor language skills and inability to adapt to foreign cultures and players when they are sent abroad. They always struggle in Europe, even in the loe divisions so you here of players getting a shot at a 2nd division club in France and then returning to play in the poor quality Vietnamese league because they couldn't make it abroad and at least in Vietnam they can be a mini celebrity married to some useless influencer. Basically there is a lack determination from the players themselved to succeed. They are not willing to make the sacrifices needed to be succesful. They would rather live a comfortable life in Vietnam and continue to be mediocre players then actually improve themselved
@@callanadamwilliams8200I agree it's also on the player. Not sure about the language part as it's very common in all sports for foreign players to pick up the local language quickly, especially if your stay likely won't be long. The issues aren't just specific to ASEAN countries but i feel like outside of Thai, true professionalism in the football system is almost none existent. In VN, there's only a few clubs that meet AFC regulations for clubs. They are at the mercy of corporate sponsors.
Japan got better because they have J league. Thai also has Thai league ,but it just never got better. The government doesn't support Thai league. They need to win before just to get support and show that their money wouldn't be gone without being use preciously.
There is one kid who had dream of becoming footballer but just got killed mysteriously in foreign country when learning to become a good footballer. No clue how that happen, from that country thay said it was a suicide but it really just doesn't felt like it. And they just doesn't give it all to investigate it. I mean although his parents aren't bothr with it but it just obviously strange. It felt like they doesn't really care about it.
The only thing that would solve this problem is just "Blue Lock". I know it just an anime but it really pointed out the problem. It does use a lot money, which obviously Thailand doesn't have any. If a company is willing to do it, they wouldn't regret it. But really, there are a lot more problem than just football. Mostly are more important than football. So this problem doesn't really has any effect on us because there are just something worse than football here.
FIFA simply sucks, big time.
But still, (most of those) countries are simply not good enough, and it is not even close. Huge population is nice but if you can’t produce talent, then you don’t deserve anything.
Football is the competition of civilization we have a real disgusting bottle neck such as Government
Football also not popular in Australia, it's below footies and cricket, but they always managed to send their team in each WC. A national team with its most players play in big european leagues is the main factor whether they're worth or not to compete in WC. Southeast asia nations are heavily relying on players with the skill and capacity on the local league's level so no chance even in 100 years if they're still doing the same
singaporean here. we would never qualify and that’s absolutely fine. 90% of our national team and teams from local league is made up of a minority race. the talent pool is so limited in an already very small country.
it’s fine though. we are used to it. we do not need sympathy spots
This reminds me that being a Poland fan isn’t THAT bad
Indonesia soon going to be the first ASEAN country to go to fourth round (hopefully can pass through 3rd round, but it is hard!!) then will be the first ASEAN country in WC 2026
Indonesia is the only ASEAN has the most big chances EVER to qualify for WC 2026, they turn the team into east Dutch indies again so they can play in WC again!!!
Expecting a big surprise in the 3rd round
Indonesia does have the possibility to advance to the fourth round, but only if they can collect 6 points from both Bahrain and China (Sorry, you know it's gonna be very hard if there are three Asian giants with them).
@@NoLuckJKMY807had only the drawn with countries kyrgistan or Palestine, they wouldve a much bigger chance, they played againts Palestine last year they controlled thr whole game
@@rafi6618 Yeah, especially since both Palestine (96th) and Kyrgyzstan (102nd) are ranked below Bahrain (80th) and China (87th) in the FIFA rankings.
Though on paper Indonesia may be unlikely to have a good chance against Bahrain and China, it should be noted that aside from going toe-to-toe against Palestine in a recent friendly match, they also beat Curaçao (who usually ranked around 80th to 89th in the FIFA rankings) twice in the friendlies.
So imo it is possible that Indonesia would escape undefeated against Bahrain and China based on their squad lineup and recent results.