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Australia seeded for finals

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19 December 2006 | 16:21 - AAP

The Socceroos will avoid the other fancied teams in the preliminary rounds of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals after receiving a seeding, although they can still draw China, Iraq or Saudi Arabia in the group stage.

 

Australia joins Iran, Japan and Korea Republic as the seeded teams for the tournament, which start on July 7.

None of those teams can be drawn to play each other until the knockout stages of the competition.

The final draw will be held on Tuesday 19 December at 11pm (AEDT).

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said the choice of the four seeds was decided by the FIFA world rankings in October, with Asian newcomers Australia the region's top-ranked team at the time after climbing to 37th.

Australia has since slipped to 39th while Iran has risen to 38th.

The four co-hosts, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, were also placed in their own pot, and the remaining eight finalists - Bahrain, China, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan -- were split in to the two other two pots.

The 16 finalists will be drawn in to four pools of four teams for next year's finals, with one team from each pot randomly selected for each pool.

The tournament kicks off in Bangkok and finishes with the final in Jakarta on July 29.

Each pool will conduct a round-robin competition to decide the two teams to advance to the knockout stage.

Pots for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup draw are:

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

Pot 2: China, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain

Pot 3: Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman

Pot 4: Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic

FIFA rankings in October:

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

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