Thai team's plan to use young players for the ASEAN Cup collapses

Thailand's head coach Anthony Hudson is experiencing a significant dilemma. The plan to use young players for the ASEAN Cup is struggling because the youth pool is inadequate. When he turned to calling up seasoned veterans to assist, those experienced players could not join either. This coach must review the list and gather available players.

According to the latest information from Thai media, the country's football team is encountering problems in summoning players for the 2026 Southeast Asian Football Championship, the "ASEAN Hyundai Cup", held from July 24 to August 26. The team cannot focus on using young players as originally planned and is now preparing to find players who can be called up.

The Thai team, the reigning runner-up, is in Group B. Their group stage schedule includes: July 25, 2026, away to Laos; August 1, 2026, home against Malaysia; August 4, 2026, away to the Philippines; and August 8, 2026, home against Myanmar. All matches kick off at 20:00 Thailand time. Home matches are held at Rajamangala Stadium.

Previously, Mr. Anthony Hudson, head coach of the Thailand national team, stated that for this ASEAN Cup, the team would mainly focus on young players because the tournament is not held during FIFA Days and coincides with the start of the new season of Thai football. Thai League 1 and Thai League 2 will begin their seasons on September 4, 2026.

According to sources, after continuous meetings to prepare the plan, Anthony Hudson, head coach of the Thailand national team, recently encountered issues regarding clubs releasing players.

The original plan was to primarily use young players, but this option had to be set aside because if only young players were used, the Thai team would not have enough players to participate in the tournament.

That led Mr. Hudson to consider adding experienced players to the squad. As a result, the Thai team for the ASEAN Cup will be a combination of young players and seasoned veterans.

However, even after changing the plan and wanting to call veteran players to support the youngsters, the Thai team continued to face difficulties. Many clubs also refused to release their experienced players.

Therefore, the coaching staff had to review the player list once again to see who could be called up for this squad.

Previously, it was reported that among the 50 players the Football Association of Thailand sent inquiries about their availability, only about 30 received approval responses for the team to choose from.