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Following the decisions taken by the football associations of the Cook Islands and Vanuatu to withdraw from the 2022 FIFA World Cup – Oceania Qualifiers due to positive cases of COVID-19 that affected their respective national teams, the Bureau for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers has taken the following decisions in order to determine the winner and runner-up of Group A in a fair and simple manner:
1. All matches played or scheduled to be played as part of Group A involving the Cook Islands or Vanuatu shall be deemed to have not taken place for the purposes of determining the group standings.
2. The match between the Solomon Islands and Tahiti scheduled to take place on March 24, 2022 will act as a single play-off match to determine the winner and runner-up of Group A. In accordance with article 20 paragraph 11 of the Regulations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition, if the match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played. If the score is still level at the end of extra time, kicks from the penalty mark shall be taken to determine the winner.
3. The Solomon Islands will go into their match against Tahiti with a clean disciplinary record (as they did not receive any cautions in their match against the Cook Islands, this shall not change the status quo in substance).
4. For the avoidance of doubt, the match between the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands, which took place on March 17, 2022 with a 2-0 result in favour of the Solomon Islands, will count with respect to the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, although it will not count with respect to the preliminary competition Group A standings.
