It means New Zealand have qualified for four of the last five men's football tournaments at the Olympics dating back to Beijing 2008, the first edition in which Australia began competing through Asian qualifying.

New Zealand have emerged as the dominant force in Oceanian football since then, with their only absence coming at Rio 2016, when they beat Vanuatu 2-0 in qualifying semi-finals at the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games but were disqualified after the OFC found Deklan Wynne was ineligible to play.

Fiji went on to represent Oceania at Rio 2016 after beating Vanuatu on penalties, but were heavily beaten in their three group matches.

For this year's OFC Men's Olympic Qualifier in New Zealand, the hosts had beaten Fiji 3-1 on their way to topping Group A, but the final played out more in the manner of their 8-0 thrashing of Vanuatu in the semi-finals.

It took just three minutes at the North Harbour Stadium for Riley Bidois to open the scoring from the penalty spot after Luis Toomey was fouled by Nabil Begg.

Bidois headed home a second three minutes later to put New Zealand 3-0 in front, and had his hat-trick by the time 19 minutes had been played.

Fiji were reduced to 10 men when Mohammed Raheem was dismissed for a second bookable offence, and Jesse Randall converted the resulting spot kick to make it 4-0.

Bidois grabbed his fourth and New Zealand's fifth in first-half stoppage time.

Liam Gillion's free kick made it 6-0 on 57 minutes, and Bidois added his fifth with a header from a corner on 66 minutes before being substituted with 20 left to play.

Inoke Turagalailai's own goal made it 8-0 on 78 minutes, and the rout was completed in the 82nd minute by Keegan Kelly.

New Zealand progressed from the group stage at the Olympics for the first time at Tokyo 2020 thanks to a winner struck in the first game against South Korea by one of their three overage players, English Premier League striker Chris Wood, and a 0-0 draw against Romania, with a 3-2 defeat to Honduras sandwiched in between.

They lost on penalties to hosts Japan in the quarter-finals after a 0-0 draw.

Men's football at the Olympics pre-dates the FIFA World Cup which started in Uruguay in 1930, but has faced an increasing battle for relevance.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognises football at Paris 1900 and St Louis 1904 as official events - although FIFA classes London 1908 as the first tournament - and it has featured at every edition since except Los Angeles 1932.

Since Barcelona 1992, only under-23 players have been permitted to compete, with three older exceptions allowed from Atlanta 1996.

Women's football at the Olympics has no such restrictions.

Shortly after his election as FIFA President in 2016, Gianni Infantino vowed to address the "sensitive issue" of men's football at the Olympics, claiming the tournament is "neither fish nor bird in this form", but the format has remained the same since.

Infantino was elected as an IOC member in 2020, and in 2021 dismissed the possibility football could be removed from the Olympics even as FIFA considered a controversial now-shelved plan for biennial Worlds Cups.

Football at Paris 2024 is due to be played at venues in seven cities in France.

New Zealand joins hosts France, the United States and Dominican Republic from North and Central America and the Caribbean, Spain, Israel and Ukraine from Europe, and Morocco, Egypt and Mali from Africa in qualifying for the men's tournament.

A further three places are available in Asia, one in South American and one in a playoff between an Asian and African nation.