Former FAM president Hamidin Amin calls for the football fraternity to ‘look forward’ as the matter is now 'history'.
The former FAM chief said the issue, which created global headlines after Fifa said FAM had submitted falsified birth certificates for the naturalised players, had already run its course and should no longer dominate discussions within Malaysian football, Harian Metro reported.
“In my view, anything that has been resolved and is now in the past should remain history,” he was quoted as saying after FAM’s extraordinary congress here today.
“Let us forget it and move on. What is important now is to look forward.”
He declined to comment further on the matter, saying any remaining questions on the controversy should be addressed by the association’s incoming president and executive committee.
FAM’s entire executive committee for the 2025-2029 term resigned en-masse in January amid a scandal surrounding the naturalised players.
Last October, the national football association and seven naturalised Malaysian footballers were penalised by Fifa after the world football body said FAM had submitted falsified birth certificates to confirm the players’ eligibility before Malaysia’s 2027 Asian Cup qualifier against Vietnam last June.
A Fifa investigation found that falsified documents had been used to claim that each player had a grandparent born in Malaysia, although they were actually born in Spain, Argentina, Brazil and the Netherlands.
The players involved are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
In addition to slapping FAM with a fine of 350,000 Swiss francs (about RM1.8 million), Fifa fined each player 2,000 Swiss francs (about RM10,560) and suspended them for 12 months.
In March, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld the appeal filed by the seven players, ruling that the ban be applied only for official matches instead of all football-related activities.
The panel found that the 12-month ban for falsifying documents was a reasonable and proportionate sanction for the players, given their complicit responsibility in the fraud.
The CAS also dismissed FAM’s appeal over Fifa’s fine, considering it justified and proportionate to the offence.
The matter has also been scrutinised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which conducted a review of FAM’s governance and is understood to have submitted a report to Fifa.
In the Harian Metro report, AFC secretary-general Windsor Paul John said the case no longer falls under the confederation’s jurisdiction.
He stressed that AFC is no longer involved in any investigation or review related to the issue, adding that any further developments should be referred to Fifa or the relevant authorities.
“At the AFC level, we have already made our decision and, as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed,” he said. - FMT
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