In this tournament, all 11 Southeast Asian teams played in the men's competition.

[1] In addition to the host city of Kuala Lumpur, matches were also played in Shah Alam and Selayang.

Associations affiliated with FIFA might send teams to participate in the tournament.

The tournament was held in four venues across three cities: The Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium was one of the original venue for the football tournament, until it was replaced by Selayang Municipal Council Stadium in July 2017 due to unsatisfactory conditions in the stadium renovations.

The teams were seeded into four pots based on their performances in the previous Southeast Asian Games.