The biennial tournament was originally scheduled to take place this month and was postponed to April to May next year.
The Southeast Asian championship will now be held from Dec 5, 2021 to Jan 1, 2022.
The decision reflects the continued priority of the AFF which is the health and safety of everyone, and has also been made to provide greater certainty to all of the event’s stakeholders, including the AFF member associations, teams, players, officials, commercial partners and fans, AFF president Khiev Sameth said in a statement.
“As always, our first priority is the health and safety of everyone connected with the event. As such, we have been monitoring COVID-19 developments, both within Asean and in the wider world, on a continuous basis,” he said.
“While there have been encouraging results in vaccine development, we are cognisant that the process of vaccine approval, as well as the practicalities of the distribution and implementation of vaccine programmes across the world including Asean will take some time.”
Vietnam are the defending champions, while Thailand are the most successful team in the event with five titles.