The 2026 tournament will feature 10 Southeast Asian national teams. Nine teams, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, have qualified for the finals, while the remaining berth will be decided via a play-off between Brunei and Timor-Leste.
The seeding was based on average performance across the two most recent editions. Accordingly, Viet Nam and Thailand — champions and runners-up, respectively, at the ASEAN Hyundai Cup 2024 — were placed in Pot 1 and could not be drawn into the same group.
The second group comprises Malaysia and Singapore; the third group includes the Philippines and Indonesia; the fourth group features Cambodia and Myanmar; and the fifth group consists of Laos and the winner of the play-off.
The draw placed Viet Nam in Group A alongside Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia and the winner of the play-off between Brunei Darussalam and Timor-Leste. Group B includes Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Laos.
Under the competition format, the ASEAN Hyundai Cup 2026 group stage will be played as a single round-robin on a home-and-away basis, with each team playing four matches from July 24 to August 8, 2026. The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals. The semi-finals and final will also be played over two legs, taking place from August 15 to August 26, 2026.
After 15 editions, Thailand remain the most successful team with seven titles, followed by Singapore (four), Viet Nam (three) and Malaysia (one).
Viet Nam head into the ASEAN Hyundai Cup 2026 as the reigning champions, after defeating Thailand 5–3 on aggregate in the 2024 final.
