The draw for next year's ASEAN Championship -- officially known as the ASEAN Hyundai Cup 2026 -- will take place on Jan. 15, 2026 in Jakarta.
As always, the eagerly-anticipated event will see teams discover their group-stage fate in their quest to be crowned the next champions of Southeast Asia - a status that has added significance next year as the tournament marks its 30th anniversary.
As has been the case in recent editions, ten teams will be drawn into two groups of five and face off in a single round-robin format from July 24 to Aug. 8, as the competition pivots to a summer window for the first time in over two decades.
The knockout round, comprising home-and-away semifinals and finals involving the top two teams from each group, will then start on Aug. 15 and culminate on Aug. 26.
From 2000, the ASEAN Championship was usually held at the end of a calendar year but the change in schedule was primarily motivated to accommodate a similar switch by a majority of Southeast Asia's domestic competitions roughly to an August-to-May calendar -- in line with many leagues around the world.
The last tournament, which was won by Vietnam at the start of 2025, saw several teams compromised when it came to team selection -- due to ongoing club commitments.
Indonesia resorted to fielding a U23 side after being unable to call upon the majority of their Europe-based players and were eliminated in the group stage despite being originally expected to be among the genuine contenders, while record seven-time champions Thailand were also without some of their most-prominent stars.
Next year's tournament marks the first edition of the Hyundai Cup, after Hyundai Motor was unveiled in May as the competition's new title sponsor.
It marks the first time the major South Korean conglomerate has ventured into Southeast Asian football, having been a major partner of FIFA since 1999, as well as owning South Korean record champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
The region's nine highest-ranked teams -- Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will all qualify automatically for the draw, while Brunei Darussalam and Timor-Leste will face off in a two-legged qualifying playoff for the final spot.