The AFC Asian Cup Organizing Committee on Thursday approved the team classification and draw procedure for the Finals draw of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™, which will be held here in the capital of Qatar on Friday, April 23.

The committee, headed by AFC Vice-President Zhang Jilong, decided that hosts Qatar will be top-seeded and assigned to the top slot in Group A (A1). The other three seeds are based on the AFC Asian Cup 2007 Finals results - Champions Iraq, runners-up Saudi Arabia and third-placed Korea Republic.

All the other teams have been ranked according to their results in the AFC Asian Cup 2007 (both the Finals and Qualifiers).

While Qatar moves into A1, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic will be drawn for the top positions in Groups B, C and D.

The committee also approved the composition of the country pots and the draw procedure.

- Pot 1 will be composed of teams seeded and ranked 1-4 (Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic) 
- Pot 2 will be composed of teams ranked 5-8 (Japan, Australia, IR Iran and Uzbekistan)
- Pot 3 will be composed of teams ranked 9-12 (China PR, UAE, Bahrain and Jordan)
- Pot 4 will be composed of teams ranked 13-16 (Syria, Kuwait, India, and DPR Korea)

Other important decisions taken by the committee include:

- Five stadiums will host the 32 matches and they are the Khalifa Stadium, Al Sadd  Stadium, Qatar Sports Club, Al Gharafa Stadium and the Al Rayyan Stadium.
- All the group matches, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals will be played at 4:15pm and 7:15pm (local time). The Final match and the third-fourth place match will be played at 6pm. 
- The kick-off times will be decided after the draw after taking into consideration the broadcast requirements. The match schedule with kick-off times will be announced on Monday, April 26.