BEIJING The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Secretary General Peter Velappan has admitted that ranks given to various teams to stand for the draw on the second round of the Asian qualifiers for next year's World Cup were not fair, according to the latest edition of the Chinese semiweekly **** Football****.

Velappan who visited Tehran to supervise the 3rd Asian Futsal Championship said that performances of each team in the past four years should have been taken into account, IRNA reported.

Velappan and Sepp Blatter, president of the world soccer's governing body, FIFA, prior to the draw had promised that the procedure would be overhauled but the Asian Football Confederation went on with the preplanned draw to get rid of FIFA's intervention.

Based on the draw, the two-time World Cup finalists Saudi Arabia, as top seeded, and Iran, being ranked second, have been grouped together in the second round of Asian qualifiers for next year's World Cup in Korea and Japan after the draw was made in Bangkok on Friday, June 1.

The Middle Eastern rivals will line up against each other in a strong group that also includes Bahrain, Iraq and Thailand, while China appears the early favorite to prevail in Group B over Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uzbekistan.

The group winners automatically qualify for the finals next year, together with cohosts Japan and South Korea, but the runners-up from the two groups will face each other for a place in a playoff against a European side.

The Asian second-round group games will be held on a home-and-away basis.

Altogether Asia will have five representatives in the 2002 World Cup if the last Asian team manages to beat its European rival to grab Europe's possible 15th berth.