The Football Association of Malaysia (Malaysia's football governing body) has declared it will appeal FIFA's ruling to penalize the organization for supposedly falsifying the nationality papers of multiple foreign-born players, who have now been suspended from representing the country for one year.
In the ninth month, FIFA imposed a fine of $438,000 on FAM and banned the footballers after finding that their grandparents were not born in Malaysia as claimed, but instead in Argentina, the Brazilian nation, the Netherlands and Spain. The global football authority reiterated its claims about doctored documentation in a official investigation report published on the start of the week.
Each of the players – who all participated in Malaysia's four-nil win over Vietnam in the qualifying match for the 2027 Asian Cup this summer – was also penalized $2,500.
The implicated individuals includes born in Spain Arrocha, Garces and Jon Irazabal Iraurgui, Argentinian-born Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Machuca, as well as Serrano who was born in the Holland, and Joao Vitor Brandao Figueiredo who was hails from Brazil.
"Forgery constitutes, plain and simple, a type of cheating," stated FIFA in its findings.
"The act of forgery undermines the heart of the basic tenets of football, not only those governing a athlete's qualification to represent a national team, but also the core ethics of a fair game and the concept of sportsmanship," commented Jorge Palacio, deputy chairperson of FIFA's ethics panel.
FIFA's document states that the Malaysian association conceded it "was contacted by third parties regarding the athletes' ancestry and failed to personally confirm the validity of the papers."
"Initial documentation showed a sharp contrast to the documentation provided," it noted.
FIFA also mentioned it was "able to obtain the relevant original documents easily," which revealed a "failure in due diligence" by the Malaysian body.
The Football Association of Malaysia responded to FIFA's report in a statement on Tuesday, asserting the discrepancies were the outcome of an "administrative error" and the players are "rightful citizens of Malaysia."
"Allegations that players 'obtained or were aware of fraudulent papers' are baseless as no solid evidence has been provided so far," the statement declared.
The governing body will submit an formal challenge of FIFA's ruling, using original documents that have been verified by the national authorities.
Southeast Asian countries have lately engaged in hiring campaigns for foreign-born athletes, inspired by the Indonesian approach of bringing in Dutch-born players from the overseas community.
Malaysia's minister for sports, the official, stated in a statement that "FAM needs to complete the appeal process and that they should not stay quiet but have to answer plainly to all revelations from the global authority."
"Fans are angry, hurt and disappointed," she added.
Despite uncertainty regarding the national team's composition, the team is now ranked 123rd in FIFA's AFC ranking and is scheduled to compete in qualifying matches for the Asian Cup in the coming weeks, facing Laos on the upcoming Thursday.
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