New Zealand has been ejected from Sunday's final of the Oceania Olympic qualifying football series after being found to have fielded an ineligible player during a semifinal against Vanuatu.
The Oceania Football Confederation disciplinary committee has upheld a protest lodged by the Vanuatu Football Federation which claimed South Africa-born defender Deklan Wynne was not eligible to play in the match.
Wynne has represented New Zealand at under-20 and senior level this year after becoming a naturalized New Zealander.
The disciplinary committee ruled that New Zealand, which beat Vanuatu 2-0 in Friday's semifinal, had now forfeited the match and Vanuatu will face Fiji in Sunday's final.
The winner of the final will represent Oceania at next year's Olympics in Rio de Janiero.
In a statement on Sunday, New Zealand Football chief executive Andy Martin said his organization would "strongly refute the ruling regarding the ineligibility of the player in question and we will be challenging this decision."
New Zealand represented the Oceania confederation at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics after Australia left the region to join the Asian confederation.
The decision to eject New Zealand from the final was made at a hearing conducted by the Oceania disciplinary committee on Sunday. The result of the seminal match was overturned and the match was awarded to Vanuatu with a 3-0 margin.
The current Olympic qualifying tournament, which is part of the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, is the only avenue for a team from Oceania to qualify for the Olympic Games.
New Zealand Football said it would make no further comment until the challenge process had been completed.