The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has reiterated its support for the seven “heritage” footballers, following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on their “complicit responsibility” in falsifying documents to join the national team.
In a statement today, FAM said the decision by the international court was “deeply disappointing”, particularly for the players, as they were purportedly not involved in the administrative process.
“The players are Malaysians who obtained citizenship in accordance (with) the laws of Malaysia,” FAM said.
It added that throughout the CAS proceedings, FAM had accepted responsibility for “oversight failures”, and noted that investigations by federal agencies in Malaysia and the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) remain ongoing.
“FAM will continue to cooperate fully with all relevant authorities,” it added.
The players involved in the issue are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Manchuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel.
Yesterday, the CAS announced its decision to partially uphold Fifa’s September 2025 sanctions against the Harimau Malaya players, who were accused of violating Article 22 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (FDC) for document falsification.
Fifa’s probes found that FAM submitted falsified documents to confirm the eligibility of the players, allowing them to compete in the third round match of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers on June 10, where Malaysia won 4-0 against Vietnam.
Consequently, FAM was ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 Swiss francs (about RM1.8 million), while each player was fined 2,000 Swiss francs and suspended from all football-related activities for 12 months.
Bans and fines confirmed
In a media release on its ruling, CAS said that after considering the evidence, it found that the infraction of falsifying eligibility documents was established.
As such, it said the 12-month ban from playing matches was a “reasonable and proportionate” sanction for the players, “given their complicit responsibility in this fraud”.
However, in accordance with Article 22 of the FDC, the panel decided that the ban should only apply to matches and not to all football-related activities, thus allowing the players to resume training with their respective clubs.
The CAS added that in FAM’s appeal, which sought lesser sanctions, FAM accepted the existence of “institutional shortcomings” and did not dispute that it may bear responsibility for violating the FDC.
FAM also stated that the players had a limited role in providing documents requested by FAM and did not prepare or alter such documents.
“The appeals by the players requested to annul the Fifa Appeal Committee decision in its entirety, or in the alternative, issue a proportionate sanction, as the players did not act with intent or negligence,” CAS stated.
Besides the amended sanctions for the players, CAS maintained the fine on FAM, ruling the amount as “justified and proportionate”.
Commenting on the outcome, FAM today said that while it respects CAS’ authority, the association considers that the sanctions “appear disproportionate”, particularly when compared to sanctions imposed in similar cases.
“The full reasoning of the award has not yet been issued, and further comment on the merits will be reserved until the grounds for the decision have been reviewed… FAM will assess this further once the full award is available,” it added.
Scrutiny of citizenship
On Oct 9 last year, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that he exercised his power granted under the Federal Constitution to consider the seven heritage footballers as fit to be granted Malaysian citizenship.
He stressed that all seven players had fulfilled the requirements under the law to be granted citizenship by naturalisation, including having proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia.
It emerged later, however, that the seven footballers do not speak Bahasa Malaysia, based on their own admissions to Fifa.
FAM, in its submissions to Fifa, also acknowledged that its officials had made “administrative adjustments to foreign birth certificates” due to time constraints and in anticipation of official confirmation from Malaysian authorities.
However, it claimed this was done without the knowledge of the players, FAM secretary-general Noor Azman Rahman, and the FAM executive committee. - Mkini
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