Which big names will be absent from the World Cup?

Qualifying for the World Cup always sees some huge stars of the club game fail to reach the tournament proper with their home nation and this year’s competition is no different.

First up, Mo Salah.

It was a case of deja vu for Salah on Tuesday night as Egypt were beaten on penalties in their play-off by Senegal, with his fellow Liverpool forward Sadio Mane scoring the decisive spot-kick – just had been the case in February’s Africa Cup of Nations final.

Egypt skipper Salah was among those unsuccessful from the spot as the Pharaohs failed to secure a second successive World Cup qualification.

Hassan Al-Thawadi, the secretary general of the 2022 World Cup, says criticism of host nation Qatar by players and managers has been "ill-informed" and the nation "should not be apologetic" about hosting the tournament.

Qatar has been heavily criticised over the country’s human rights record. There are strict anti-LGBTIQ+ laws in the country and plentiful concerns have been raised over migrant workers and how they have been treated.

"Some people have made statements that in my opinion were ill-informed," Hassan Al-Thawadi told BBC Sport. "We should not be apologetic over our ambitions to host this tournament because we are football loving region.

"We are football crazy and football mad like anywhere else. We have the legitimate ambition to showcase our region to the rest of the world and to change people’s perception of who we are."

Who could England get?

England will discover their group stage opponents for the World Cup in Qatar this evening, with Germany or Croatia potentially standing in the Three Lions’ way early on.

Gareth Southgate’s men are in the top pot of seeds for the draw in Doha, and a rematch against the Germans – who England beat in the last 16 en route to the Euro 2020 final – or World Cup semi-final conquerors Croatia are two possibilities which lie in wait.

Both those sides are in a strong-looking pot two which also includes Mexico, Denmark and Holland.

As we get closer to the draw for the World Cup in Qater, the line-up of former players who will be drawing out the teams has been revealed.

Cafu (Brazil), Lothar Matthaus (Germany), Adel Ahmed MalAllah (Qatar), Ali Daei (Iran), Bora Milutinovic (Serbia/Mexico), Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria), Rabah Madjer (Algeria) and Tim Cahill (Australia) will be all be part of the draw.

Coaches and football officials are gathering in Qatar for Friday’s draw for the Middle East‘s first World Cup.

There will be 37 nations involved in the draw ceremony but five teams will ultimately not reach the tournament, which begins on 21st November.

However, the day began with a protest outside Fifa headquarters in Zurich. German artist Volker-Johannes Trieb used balls filled with sand to protest against the suffering of migrant workers in Qatar who have worked on the infrastructure related to the World Cup.

A Norwegian soccer official delivered a scathing criticism of World Cup host Qatar and FIFA to an audience of executives on Thursday on the eve of the tournament’s draw.

Qatar’s record of protecting the rights of migrant workers — who have built tens of billion of dollars of projects needed for the World Cup — and its criminalization of homosexuality was aired by Lise Klaveness, the newly elected head of soccer in Norway and one of the few women ever to lead a FIFA member federation.

It was a rare show of dissent and tension in the typically tightly scripted annual meeting of soccer’s 211 member countries, and targeted issues that have dogged Qatar and FIFA’s controversial choice of the Middle East country for more than a decade.

More from Fifa president Gianni Infantino: "The Russia World Cup in 2018 was by all means a great World Cup, sportingly and culturally. But obviously it did not solve the problems of the world. It did not even solve the problems in the region.

"It did not create a lasting peace. But what I want to say now is that once this terrible conflict is over, and all other conflicts around the world, hopefully football can play a small part in rebuilding relationships, in establishing peace and understanding.

"My plea to all of those who have some power, in important political positions, please stop conflicts and wars. We must engage in dialogue even with your worst enemy. We have to learn again to live together."

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine.

Infantino, who received an Order of Friendship medal from Putin in 2019, a year after Russia hosted the World Cup, spoke at the Fifa congress in Doha where delegates from the Russian Football Union were controversially present.

"Now that we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel (on the Covid-19 pandemic), what happens now? War. War with the fear of a global conflict," he said.

"Innocent people are suffering and dying. We live in an aggressive world, we live in a divided world. But as you know I am a big believer in the power of football to bring people together and to cross cultural boundaries.

"Nelson Mandela said sport has the power to change the world. Football is the world’s sport, but at the same time we are not that naive to believe that football can solve all the problems, of course not."

FIFA has been criticised for allowing Russian delegates to attend its annual congress in Qatar following the country’s ban from the World Cup due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Two senior Russian officials are scheduled to be at Thursday’s event but there will be no representative from the Ukrainian FA.

Ukraine will instead be represented by its ambassador to Qatar, while the Russian flag will be flown at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.

Chris Bryant MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Russia, told the Times: “I’m constantly mystified at sporting bodies who do not seem to watch the news, or take enough action if they do.

“They don’t seem to be able to isolate Russia in light of Putin’s appalling war crimes. We must isolate any Russian who wants to take part in world affairs until Russia withdraws.”

The World Cup draw marks a major landmark in a 12-year long journey that has attracted unprecedented global scrutiny over Qatar’s treatment of its two-million strong foreign workforce.

VIPs, football teams, coaches, officials and celebrities gathered for the event at the relatively new Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre on Friday. The building and the area it sits in is a testament to the transformation of the Qatari capital.

It is a modern, high-rise area, populated by malls, shops, high-rise offices, glittering hotels and high-end restaurants. Close to the convention centre is a stop for the new and expensively built metro system. A little further down the road are the offices of major energy companies and even the headquarters of the Qatari team organising the World Cup.

Qatar has been anxious to show that its World Cup, the first in the Middle East, will leave a legacy.

But some 3,400 kilometres (2,100 miles) away there was little interest at events taking place in the Qatari capital. But there is definitely a legacy.