Oceania adjourn appeal of New Zealand's Olympic disqualification

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have adjourned the appeal by New Zealand Football (NZF) over their under-23 men's team's expulsion from the Olympic qualifying tournament final last month in Papua New Guinea.

New Zealand were expelled from the tournament final after an OFC disciplinary committee ruled that South African-born defender Deklan Wynne was ineligible following an appeal by Vanuatu, who had lost 2-0 in the semi-finals to New Zealand.

Fiji went on to beat Vanuatu on penalties in the final to qualify for the men's Olympics soccer tournament at next year's Rio Games.

The closed-door appeal hearing was scheduled to have begun in Auckland on Monday, though the OFC said it had been adjourned after NZF said their preferred legal counsel was unavailable.

No date was set for the rescheduled hearing.

NZF President Deryck Shaw said last month they had appealed the process undertaken by the OFC and the rules applied in reaching the original decision.

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)