On 9 April 2001, Tonga and Australia played an international soccer match at the International Sports Stadium in Coffs Harbour in the Australian state of New South Wales. The match was an Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) first round qualifying match for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Tonga, nominally the home team for this round robin qualifying match, were defeated 0–22 by Australia. This beat the previous international record of 20–0 from October 2000 when Kuwait defeated Bhutan on 12 February 2000 in qualification for the 2000 AFC Asian Cup. The margin of defeat also beat the previous record in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, the 19–0 result between Iran and Guam in Tabriz in November 2000. The margin was surpassed two days later when Australia again prevailed, defeating a depleted American Samoa team with a 31–0 scoreline.
Background
Ten teams from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) entered the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament. The teams were split into two groups of five, with Group 1 playing in Australia at the International Sports Stadium in Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales North Coast. Group 2 was based in Auckland, New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand, traditionally the two strongest teams in the OFC, were split for the group stage. Group 1 included Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa; of which only Australia had previously appeared at the finals of a FIFA World Cup. The venue was chosen by Soccer Australia in December 2000, with national coach Frank Farina citing the pitch quality as a key factor in the decision. Australia's hosting rights were briefly under threat as a result of sanctions placed by Australia against Fiji after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état.
In January 2001, Australian coach Frank Farina suggested that he would head into the tournament with a squad split 50/50 between Australia and Europe. With the qualifying tournament occurring during the European season, a number of clubs had appealed to FIFA to stop Australia from selecting European-based players. While Soccer Australia chairman Tony Labbozzetta initially agreed to FIFA demands that European-based players not play, Farina went ahead and selected a 20-man team of which eight were European-based. Even after the squad was named, a number of managers of European-based players continued to complain of being deprived of their services. In early April, after Coventry City player Mustapha Hadji was suspended, manager Gordon Strachan appealed for John Aloisi to be released or banned from national duty.
Australian midfielder Con Boutsianis was in doubt until the week before the match as he faced a County Court of Victoria trial after being involved in an armed robbery in 1998. Ultimately he was found guilty of theft, receiving a fine of and a two-year good behaviour bond; leaving him free to play.
Ahead of the match, Ned Zelic effectively ended any hope of an Australian recall when he gave an interview on Planetfootball.com. He was quoted as saying, "Because I don't play for them (any) more, I don't care if they make it (to the World Cup finals) or not" and that he wished he had played for Croatia, "Now I would like to play for Croatia, but that is no longer possible."
With regular Australia captain Paul Okon choosing to prioritise playing for Middlesbrough over the national team, Kevin Muscat was a surprise choice for captain. It was suggested that his disciplinary troubles at club level would rule him out as a captaincy choice.
In the first match of the qualifying tournament, Tonga had defeated Samoa 1–0. While this was Tonga's second match, this was Australia's first with their last match before the tournament being a 3–2 loss to Colombia in Bogotá in February.