Thailand won the soccer gold by defeating hosts Malaysia in the final of the event, the first to be played in the competition's 21-year history by teams made up entirely of players under the age of 23.

AFC general secretary Peter Velappan had been pushing for all soccer tournaments that were part of multi-sports events to enforce the age limit but had previously been met by opposition.

Multi-sport event organisers had vehemently opposed the plans in the past and the Olympic Council of Asia blocked plans for age-group-only teams to participate in the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1998.

The SEA Games was the first event to follow the ruling by the AFC, who sanction all tournaments in the continent and who have decreed that all such events will follow the same rules from now on, including the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.

'In our opinion, the wisdom of making the event an under-23 affair has been proved right,' said Velappan.

'All nine teams in the competition have now at their disposal a pool of quality players who can be groomed into Asian, Olympic and possibly world class players.

'The group of players in the SEA Games football competition are also a very important link between the youth and national teams. I was pleasantly surprised that all the teams in the competition were under 22 years of age.

'We have asked all the countries to maintain this group of players and expose them to more international tournaments so that they will be ready for the Olympic qualifying event in 2003.

'The AFC has introduced at continental level, tournaments for the under-14, under-17 and under-20 age groups.

'With this under-23 age group in place, we are now able to complete the Asian football structure which ensures a steady, systematic and progressive development of football on the continent.'

The age restrictions will only apply to tournaments where soccer is part of a multi-sports event.