🔗 Share this article

The Football Association of Malaysia (Malaysia's football governing body) has announced it will contest FIFA's decision to sanction the body for allegedly forging the nationality papers of multiple overseas-born players, who have now been banned from representing the national team for 12 months.

The Global Football Body's Claims and Fines

In the ninth month, FIFA levied a penalty of over four hundred thousand dollars on FAM and banned the footballers after discovering that their grandparents were not Malaysian by birth as stated, but rather in Argentina, the Brazilian nation, the European country and the Iberian nation. The global football governing body restated its assertions about falsified papers in a disciplinary committee report published on the start of the week.

Each of the individuals – who all participated in Malaysia's 4-0 victory over the Vietnamese team in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifier this June – was also fined twenty-five hundred dollars.

The accused group includes born in Spain Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Garces and Jon Irazabal Iraurgui, Argentinian-born Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Machuca, as well as Serrano who was originated in the Holland, and Joao Vitor Brandao Figueiredo who was born the South American country.

FIFA's Stance on Forgery

"Forgery constitutes, plain and simple, a type of cheating," said FIFA in its findings.

"Forging documents undermines the very core of the fundamental principles of the sport, not only those regulating a player’s eligibility to play for a country's squad, but also the core ethics of a clean sport and the principle of sportsmanship," commented a senior official, deputy chairperson of FIFA's disciplinary committee.

FAM's Reply and Challenge Strategy

FIFA's report claims that the Malaysian association conceded it "received inquiries by external agencies regarding the athletes' ancestry and failed to independently verify the validity of the documentation."

"Initial documentation indicated a stark difference to the documentation provided," it noted.

FIFA also mentioned it was "managed to acquire the relevant original documents without hindrance," which highlighted a "failure in due diligence" by FAM.

The Football Association of Malaysia responded to the global body's allegations in a statement on the following day, maintaining the discrepancies were the result of an "administrative error" and the individuals are "rightful citizens of Malaysia."

"Claims that players 'acquired or were aware of fake documents' are baseless as no concrete proof has been presented so far," the announcement said.

The governing body will present an formal challenge of the international body's decision, using original documents that have been verified by the national authorities.

Regional Context and Official Reactions

Southeast Asian countries have lately pursued hiring campaigns for foreign-born athletes, modelled after Indonesia's strategy of bringing in born in the Netherlands players from the overseas community.

Malaysia's minister for sports, Hannah Yeoh, said in a statement that "FAM needs to complete the appeal process and that they cannot remain silent but have to answer plainly to every disclosure made by the global authority."

"Fans are upset, hurt and let down," she added.

Current Situation and Upcoming Matches

Regardless of uncertainty regarding the squad's composition, the team is now ranked one hundred twenty-third in the Asian Football Confederation standings and is set to compete in Asian Cup qualifiers this month, facing the Laotian team on the upcoming Thursday.