. <p style="text-align: justify">New Zealand's footballers were thrown out of their Olympic qualifying tournament Sunday for fielding an ineligible player just hours before they were due to contest the final.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Vanuatu lodged a complaint about fullback Deklan Wynne after losing 2-0 to New Zealand in Friday's semi-final at the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, which serves as the Oceania men's Olympic qualifying tournament.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"A member of the New Zealand U-23 squad has been deemed ineligible to represent New Zealand," the Oceania Football Confederation Disciplinary Committee said in a statement.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"The Committee has declared that New Zealand has forfeited the match against Vanuatu... and therefore Vanuatu proceed to the final match of the OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament against Fiji."</p> <p style="text-align: justify">New Zealand Football (NZF) confirmed the 20-year-old Wynne was the target of the protest but gave no details.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">"We strongly refute the ruling regarding the ineligibility of the player in question and we will be challenging this decision," NZF chief executive Andy Martin said.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">Wynne easily meets the January 1, 1993 birth deadline to make the Olympics, indicating the eligibility issue could be related to the South African-born player's passport.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">He has previously represented the full New Zealand All Whites team as well as the Junior All Whites at the recent FIFA U20 World Cup.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">New Zealand has qualified as the Oceania representative at the Olympics ever since Australia moved to the Asian conference after the 2004 Games in Greece.</p> <p style="text-align: justify">At both the Beijing and London Olympics they lost two and drew one game and failed to progress from pool play.</p> <p style="text-align: justify"><strong>By AFP</strong></p>