India, along with 10 other countries, was on Tuesday provisionally cleared to participate in next year's AFC Champions League, which will turn completely professional on its relaunch.

Signalling a new dawn for professionalism in Asian football, the AFC Pro-League Ad-Hoc Committee recommended to the Executive Committee the first list of 11 countries for the new AFC Champions League next year.

Along with India, Japan [Images], Korea Republic, Australia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Iran made the cut after a thorough assessment of their eligibility.

The committee employed four grades  -- 'A' (meet all criteria), 'B' (assured to meet criteria by October 1 2008), 'C' (not assured to meet criteria by October 1 2008) and 'D' (do not meet the criteria).

Only Japan met all the criteria and bagged a straight 'A' in all the fields and India is among the 10 member countries, of which the committee is confident that they would meet the criteria by October 1.

However, if India fails to meet all criteria by October 1, they cannot participate in the new AFC Champions League.

"The recommendations of this committee are based on inspections and long, fruitful discussions and our goal is to create an attractive competition which will take Asian football to new heights," Captain Saburo Kawabuchi, who chaired the meeting, said.

A final decision on the issue would be taken by the committee in its November 25 meeting.

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