The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has ruled that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) violated rules by fielding ineligible players during two 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers matches last year, dashing Harimau Malaya’s hopes of vying for the championship in Saudi Arabia next year.
Following the finding, the AFC has slapped FAM with a fine of US$50,000 (RM196,119) and nullified Malaysia’s win in two qualifying matches.
The matches involved are Malaysia vs Nepal at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Johor on March 25, which ended in a 2-0 win for Malaysia, and Malaysia vs Vietnam at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on June 10, which ended in a 4-0 win for Malaysia.
“The AFC disciplinary and ethics committee has decided that Malaysia is declared to have lost with a 3-0 score for both matches, based on Article 25.1 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code,” FAM said in a statement today.
It added that the committee had met on March 17 for a meeting chaired by committee chairperson Jahangir Baglari, after which it was found that FAM had breached Article 56 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code.
“FAM will make a written application to obtain the grounds of the decision from the AFC disciplinary and ethics committee before considering the next steps to be taken regarding this matter,” the local football association said.
In December last year, the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) had overturned the results of three of the national squad’s Tier 1 international friendly matches played in May and September.
FAM was also hit with a 10,000 Swiss Francs (RM51,000) fine for breaching Article 19 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (FDC) for fielding ineligible players for the three matches.
On Sept 26, Fifa confirmed that FAM and seven heritage players - Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Manchuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel - were found guilty of violating Article 22 of the FDC related to document falsification.
Investigations revealed that FAM had submitted supposedly falsified citizenship documents to confirm the eligibility of the players.
For this, FAM was also ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 Swiss francs, while each player was fined 2,000 Swiss francs and suspended from all football-related activities for 12 months.
Backlash against MFL’s decision
Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) partially upheld Fifa’s sanctions against the Harimau Malaya players after finding that the infraction of falsifying eligibility documents was established.
Besides amended sanctions for the players, CAS maintained the fine on FAM, ruling the amount as “justified and proportionate”.
Recently, the Malaysian Football League (MFL) said the registrations of four players implicated in the scandal - Figueiredo, Irazabal, Hevel, and Arrocha - complied with M-League regulations.
Figueiredo, Irazabal, and Hevel are players for Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) FC, while Arrocha is with Kuching City FC.
In a March 13 statement, MFL said the four players had completed the registration process using valid identity cards issued by the National Registration Department, thus allowing them to be registered as local players for the league.
The decision, however, has ignited much backlash from football fans and the public, with certain quarters highlighting that the decision appears to contradict Fifa’s findings, which have been reiterated by the CAS. - Mkini
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