November 18, 2006	Saturday	Shawwal 25, 1427

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KARACHI, Nov 17: Pakistan will take on Singapore in the qualifying phase of the 29th Olympic Games football tournament next year. Singapore will host the first leg on Feb 7 while return leg will be arranged by Pakistan Football Federation on Feb 14.

The winner of the match will appear in the second round (Group A) alongwith Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. The qualifying format sees the 20 lowest ranked teams having to clear the preliminary round hurdle before joining the top 14 seeds, who are exempt from the preliminary round, in the second round qualifying.

The 24-team second round qualifying, which has been split into six groups of four each, runs through Feb 28 – June 6, 2007, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the final round which will be played in three groups of four teams each. The final home-and-away round will be held from Aug 22 - Nov 21 with the three group winners representing Asia at the Beijing Olympic Games. China has already qualified as hosts.

Top seed Iraq have been bracketed with East Asian powerhouse DPR Korea and the winners of the preliminary round matches between Turkmenistan-Thailand and Myanmar-India in Group E. Second seed Korea Republic found themselves in the tricky Group F with UAE and the winners of the preliminary round encounters between Central Asian teams Uzbekistan-Tajikistan and the West Asian pairing of Yemen-Palestine.

Group D turned out to be the toughest of the six with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Kyrgyzstan, Australia or Chinese Taipei in contention for the top two places.

Japan has the easiest draw on paper after being slotted alongside Malaysia, Syria, Hong Kong-Bangladesh in Group B, while Group A is packed with three West Asian teams Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, with Pakistan or Singapore coming through the preliminary round to join them. Oman, Lebanon, Vietnam- Afghanistan, Indonesia-Maldives will fight it out in Group C.

FIRST ROUND (TWO-LEGGED ELIMINATION SYSTEM)

Myanmar vs India, Jordan vs Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan vs Thailand, Vietnam vs Afghanistan, Uzbekistan vs Tajikistan, Singapore vs Pakistan, Hong Kong vs Bangladesh, Yemen vs Palestine, Indonesia vs Maldives and Australia vs Chinese Taipei. —Agencies