The committee, which met under the chairmanship of UAE’s Yousuf Al Serkal, also decided to award the AFC President’s Cup 2012 Finals to Tajikistan.

Oman and Thailand were bidding to host the U-22 Finals and the members opted for the West Asian country, which will be hosting a centralised AFC competition for the first time.

Oman have already qualified for the AFC U-22 Championship Finals as the best third-placed team. Since, Oman now get a direct slot by virtue of being the hosts of the competition, the best third-placed team slot from all the qualifying groups will now be given to Yemen.

The committee also decided to reconfirm the AFC Competitions Calendar for 2013 in its next meeting in November, and decided to set up a task force to review some of the critical dates in future calendars.

If Syria’s Al Shorta reach the final of the AFC Cup 2012, the committee decided to give an option to the Syrian Football Association to play at the neutral venue of Amman, Jordan, or travel to the opposite team’s country and play the match there.

The committee also accepted the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s proposal to change the date of the AFC Champions League semi-final from October 24 to October 22, if any of the Saudi club reaches the last four stage and has to host the first leg of the encounter. This shift will be necessitated because of the Haj season.

The members also discussed the possibility of a simultaneous kickoff in the last two match days of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers Round 4 and a new schedule/format for the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup finals.

The members also adopted amendments to the competition regulations concerning abandoned matches, and the ticketing policy for the 2012 AFC Champions League and AFC Cup finals. They also ratified the decisions taken by the Organising Committee for AFC Youth Competitions and the Joint Meeting of Adhoc Committee for Professional Football.

All decisions of this committee need to be ratified by the AFC Executive Committee to take effect.