AFC Asian Cup 2007 Organising Committee approves team classification for Final Draw

AFC - Australia, Iran, Japan and Korea Republic will come out of the pots as the top four seeded teams for the AFC Asian Cup 2007 Final Draw to be held today at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

The AFC Asian Cup 2007 Organising Committee today approved this classification, which is based on the FIFA World Ranking for October 2006, and also the pot allocations and draw procedure.

The new classification system ensures that the same number of strong teams are placed with each of the four co-hosts and is thus a break from the past when teams were seeded solely on the basis of their performance in the previous AFC Asian Cup competition.

Another rationale behind basing the seedings on the FIFA World Ranking is to avoid clubbing three or more FIFA World Cup 2006 teams (Japan, Korea Republic, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia) in the same group.

The top four Asian teams in October – Australia, Iran, two-time defending champions Japan and Korea Republic – will be placed in Pot 4 while Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Oman will go into Pot 3. Pot 2 will be made up of last edition’s runners-up China, Iraq, UAE and Bahrain.

The four co-hosts Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will be placed in Pot 1 and assigned to each of the four groups.

THE POTS

Pot 1: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam (all co-hosts)

Pot 2: China, Iraq, UAE, Bahrain

Pot 3: Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman

Pot 4: Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic


The 16 teams will be split into four first round groups of four teams each. The top-two teams from each group will progress to the quarterfinals.


FIFA RANKING OF THE TEAMS IN OCTOBER 2006


1) Australia – 37

2) Iran – 43

3) Japan – 46

4) Korea Republic – 48

5) Qatar – 53

6) Uzbekistan – 59

7) Saudi Arabia – 62

8) Oman – 63

9) China – 87

10) Iraq – 89

11) UAE – 91

12) Bahrain – 108


The Draw Procedure will be announced in detail shortly.