It consists of the federations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

[2] The AFF was established in Jakarta on 31 January 1984 during an informal meeting of representatives of six ASEAN member states; Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand.

The idea of founding the federation came from the initial meeting of founding the sub-continental football association in Bangkok in 1982 that was attended by Hamzah Abu Samah, Peter Velappan, Hans Pandelaki, Fernando G. Alvarez, Pisit Ngampanich, Teo Chong Tee and Yap Boon Chuan.

[3] Other nations that have joined the federation since are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (all in 1996),[1] East Timor in 2004, and Australia in 2013.

"Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, who is also chairman of the Awards Selection Committee, said that as football in the region continued to develop and mature, the commitment demonstrated by ASEAN’s finest needed to be acknowledged.