ASEAN Football Championship = Suzuki Cup which used to = Tiger Cup (or why the organisers should just stick to one name)

By Les Tan

Vietnam won the ASEAN Football Championship title when they beat Thailand 3-2 overall on aggregate after their second leg final ended in a 1-1 tie last night. Vietnam won the first leg 2-1 away in Bangkok, Thailand.

This is the first time Vietnam have lifted the ASEAN title. The previous titles were won either by Thailand (3 times) or Singapore (3 times).

The championship was known as the Tiger Cup from its inaugural year in 1996, when Tiger Beer was the title sponsor. Tiger Beer did not renew the sponsorship when it lapsed and the 2004 and 2006 championships were simply known as the ASEAN Football Championship.

This year’s championship was sponsored by Suzuki and so hence the name change.

The name change, to put it mildly, is confusing. If anything, from a naming point of view, the ASEAN Football Championship describes it perfectly.

Having started its life as the Tiger Cup, it was inevitable one day that Tiger Beer would not continue its sponsorship for business reasons. Car manufacturer Suzuki will some day come to the same conclusion.

Then what? Sell the name to the next highest bidder? Panadol Cup? Colgate Cup?

In the lead up to the recently concluded ASEAN Football Championship, the mainstream media had to jump through a few hoops to explain that the Tiger Cup, which became the ASEAN Football Championship, was now the Suzuki Cup. Of course, some, like the New Paper, did it because Suzuki took out advertising.

Sponsors help of course, but some things shouldn’t be sold just for short-term gain because it generates long-term confusion.

The international football site soccernet.com lists the event as the ASEAN Football Championship and not the Suzuki Cup while the International Herald Tribune – iht.com – calls it the “Southeast Asian championship”.

International sites tend to use the generic name for an event wherever possible.

For example, SingTel, which got sold the Singapore Grand Prix title sponsorship for a reported US$10-12 million, never reaped those benefits globally because BBC and the International Herald Tribune simply referred to it as the “Singapore Grand Prix”.