Asia announces it's FIFA World Cup qualification seedings

The Asian Football Confederation has announced it's qualification process and seedings in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals to be held in South Africa.

The AFC has been allocated 4.5 places in the World Cup finals (5th to playoff against the top ranked side from Oceania) and has seeded it's 43 entries based on their performances in the 2006 tournament and earlier qualification matches.

As a result, Australia has been allocated the top seeding as the only AFC member to proceed beyond the group stages in Germany.

The other nations to make up the AFC top 5 and who will each receive byes through to the third round of the qualification process are Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Japan and IR IRan.

Despite winning last month's AFC Asian Cup, Iraq have been seeded 12th and will be required to play in the first round of qualification (08 + 28 October 2007).

The top 4 Asian nations (who will receive direct entry to the FIFA World Cup finals) will be known following qualification round 4 which concludes September 2009. The AFC/OFC playoff will be held on the 10th and 14th Of October 2009.

AFC Seedings:
1. Australia
2. Korea Republic
3. Saudi Arabia
4. Japan
5. IR. Iran
6. Bahrain
7. Uzbekistan
8. Kuwait
9. DPR Korea
10. China
11. Jordan
12. Iraq
13. Lebanon
14. Oman
15. UAE
16. Qatar
17. Syria
18. Palestine
19. Thailand
20. Turkmenistan
21. Tajikistan
22. Indonesia
23. Hong Kong
24. Yemen
25. Vietnam
26. Kyrgyzstan
27. Maldives
28. India
29. Singapore
30. Sri Lanka
31. Malaysia
32. Chinese Taipei
33. Bangladesh
34. Macau
35. Pakistan
36. Afghanistan
37. Mongolia
38. Guam
39. Nepal
40. Cambodia
41. Bhutan
42. Myanmar
43. Timor Leste

The AFC will conduct the full draw on Monday August 6.