The Lagardère Sports agency has agreed a deal to continue marketing the commercial rights to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Football Federation’s (AFF) recently-revamped ASEAN Football Championship biennial national team tournament.
The extended agreement will run for eight years, from 2017 to 2024, and will cover four editions of the tournament.
Lagardère Sports will manage the exclusive media and marketing rights to the championship, which most recently took place in November last year and was won by Thailand.
From 2018, the competition will be expanded from eight to 10 teams. The top nine ranked AFF countries will automatically qualify for the tournament, with the final place being determined by a play-off between the two lowest ranked nations.
Each group will comprise five teams, with each nation playing two home and two away matches. The top two teams in each group will progress to the semi-finals stage, which, along with the final, will remain as home-and-away matches over two legs.
Lagardère Sports has overseen the sale of rights for the tournament since 2009.