Qatar

Just like Diego Maradona stamped himself indelibly on Argentina's 1986 win in Mexico and Brazil striker Ronaldo wrote a redemption story in Yokohama in their 2002 triumph, this will be known as Messi's World Cup if he inspires victory against either France or Morocco in the final.

Argentina's campaign in Qatar opened with the ignominy of what is still this World Cup's biggest shock, when they lost to Saudi Arabia.

The tests were conducted prior to the Vanuatu squad departing their team hotel for the stadium.

Vanuatu would not have had enough players to field a team.

OFC is yet to make a statement on the future of the game.

In the other game on the opening day, beaten finalists from the last tournament in 2017, the Solomon Islands beat the Cook Islands 2-0.

New Zealand's opening game is against Papua New Guinea tomorrow.

Photo: Screenshot  Caption: The FIFA World Cup Oceania qualifying match between Tahiti and Vanuatu did not go ahead. 

Auckland City FC defender Kaltak will wear the captain’s armband in his third World Cup qualifying campaign, joining Australia-based players Jared Clark and Mitch Cooper, as the overseas additions to a group otherwise made up of players from the Vanuatu domestic scene.  

Midfielder Cooper plays for Hume City FC in Melbourne, while Clark hails from Adelaide’s Croydon FC.  

Tangis, who sits in the top 10 for all-time appearances and goals for Vanuatu, is one of five Galaxy FC players selected. 

The national team was scheduled to play Tonga in the qualifiers match for a place in the group stage of the competition.

The Cook Islands will now get a chance to play against Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu.

The tournament will determine which nation will represent Oceania in the FIFA intercontinental play-off in June 2022, from which the winner earns a spot at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ finals.  

A standalone match between the two lowest-ranked OFC nations, Tonga and the Cook Islands, will be held on March 13 to determine who qualifies through to join Group A and contest the preliminary competition. 

Group A, which will be made up of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tahiti and the qualifying match winner, will have its first Match Day on March 17. 

The Oceania Football Confederation confirmed all matches will take place in Qatar from 14 to 30 March 2022.

The OFC qualifiers will be played in a mini-tournament format featuring eight teams, consisting of a round-robin group stage, semi-finals and the final.

The women were ordered off a flight and checked for whether they had given birth after a baby was found in a bin at Hamad Airport in October 2020.

They described their experience as state-sanctioned assault and the incident sparked widespread outrage.

Qatar later apologised and one airport official was handed a suspended jail sentence.

But the women say their cases have since been ignored.

They were taken off the Qatar Airways plane by armed guards before being taken into ambulances on the tarmac where they were inspected by nurses.

But militancy alone is likely to leave the Taliban on its own - globally isolated, with millions of Afghans facing an even more uncertain future.

The world's powers are now scrambling to exert influence amid the return of the country's Islamist rulers. And in the process two nations from the Arab and Muslim world have been emerging as key mediators and facilitators - Qatar and Turkey.

  He went on to represent Real Madrid, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and LA Galaxy where his world-renowned brand exploded before eventually retiring and venturing into club ownership with MLS franchise Inter Miami.

With a current net worth of an estimated £360m (R7.4-billion), Beckham has now reportedly agreed to lead a role to promote the nation with a key influence of the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The group - which included women from Australia, the UK and New Zealand - was checked for evidence they had recently given birth after a baby was found in a bin at Doha airport on 2 October.

New Zealand's foreign ministry called the actions of Qatari authorities "appalling" and "completely unacceptable".

Qatar's government said today that "standard procedures were violated". It also offered its "sincerest apology" for what the women went through.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne called the referrals for prosecution an "important step".