  The CLEO experimental data on the $\pi\gamma$ transition are analyzed to
next-to-leading order accuracy in QCD perturbation theory using light-cone QCD
sum rules. By processing these data along the lines proposed by Schmedding and
Yakovlev, and recently revised by us, we obtain new constraints for the
Gegenbauer coefficients $a_{2}$ and $a_{4}$, as well as for the inverse moment
$x^{-1}$ of the pion distribution amplitude (DA). The former determine the pion
DA at low momentum scale, the latter is crucial in calculating pion form
factors. From the results of our analysis we conclude that the data confirm the
end-point suppressed shape of the pion DA we previously obtained with QCD sum
rules and nonlocal condensates, while the exclusion of both the asymptotic and
the Chernyak--Zhitnitsky DAs is reinforced at the $3\sigma$- and
$4\sigma$-level, respectively. The reliability of the main results of our
updated CLEO data analysis is demonstrated. Our pion DA is checked against the
di-jets data from the E791 experiment, providing credible evidence for our
results far more broadly.
