The news comes on the back of New Zealand’s expulsion from the Olympic qualifying football tournament here in Papua New Guinea's capital after the Oceania Football Confederation ruled South-African born left-back Deklan Wynne ineligible to have played in his nation’s 2-0 semi-final win against Vanuatu.

Despite having played for the All Blacks Sevens team in the past, Malakai Fekitoa, Waisake Naholo and David Raikuna will need special citizenship approval if they are to participate at Rio 2016, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Fekitoa moved to New Zealand on a rugby scholarship in 2009 from his native Ha'apai, an island group in Tonga.

That same year, Fiji introduced legislation allowing dual citizenship, meaning the likes of Raikuna and Naholo would no longer need to part with their Fijian passports.

Fekitoa does not meet the five-year residency requirement before the cut-off point for Games selection, however.

New Zealand coach Sir Gordon Tietjens has already fallen foul of the stringent citizenship rules governing Olympic qualification, with him unable to field Raikuna and Naholo due to them having passports from Fiji. 

A New Zealand Olympic Committee spokeswoman has confirmed that athletes listed for Olympic selection must provide a declaration that they are a New Zealand citizen with the deadline for submissions being August 5.  

Then they must submit a passport for accreditation processing, a prcess set to take place in the first quarter of next year.

New Zealand’s Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne, who makes the final decision on whether citizenship ought to be granted, claimed he had not had any discussions with New Zealand Rugby officials about applications.

"I've not received any material in relation to Fekitoa or any other prominent rugby player," he told the New Zealand Herald.

"What I would say is that I've certainly had no approaches.

“I wouldn't discuss any individual's application anyway."

Dunne added: "By and large the message we are giving sports authorities is to check eligibility before selecting people."

New Zealand Rugby declined to comment when contacted by insidethegames.

Last year, Association of National Olympic Committees President Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al-Sabah vowed to work with the International Rugby Board, now known as World Rugby, to address eligibility issues ahead of rugby sevens' Olympic debut. 

A major controversy in the sport for many years has been players from across the world switching nationality.

The Pacific Islands, including Fiji and Tonga as well as Samoa, have been particularly hard hit, with players from these nations often switching to Australia or New Zealand.

An eligibility clause to Regulation 8 of World Rugby's Laws Relating to the Games has been added to try to bring it more into line with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose rules on switching nationalities are different.

As a special rule only for the rugby sevens competition at Rio 2016, it reduces the length of time a player must not play for a nation in order to switch nationality to another from 36 to 18 months, with the player also requiring a passport of the country they seek to switch to.

This potentially means many top Pacific Islanders who have switched to other nations, but not played for that nation for over 18 months, could switch back to home countries, like Samoa, in time for the Olympics. 


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