7 ‘heritage’ players free to play as one-year ban ends

 Malaysian Football League confirms that the seven foreigners sanctioned for using falsified documents to play for the national team have served their one year ban.

FAM and seven naturalised footballers were penalised by Fifa last year, after the world football body said the national association had submitted falsified documents. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR:

Seven heritage players who were previously handed 12-month suspensions by Fifa are now free to resume all football-related activities with effect from today.

The Malaysian Football League (MFL) confirmed this in a circular dated Oct 30, stating that the suspensions imposed on the players had ended yesterday.

MFL chief executive officer Shazli Shaik confirmed the authenticity of the circular, which was also widely circulated on social media.

“That is correct, it is genuine,” he told Bernama when contacted.

The seven players are Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel.

Of the seven players, four – Figueiredo, Palmero, Irazabal and Hevel – play for Johor Darul Takzim (JDT), while Holgado is on the verge of joining DPMM FC, as previously confirmed by the Brunei-based club.

The controversy involving the seven players came to light in September last year after Fifa found that falsified documents had been used to support the eligibility of the foreign-born players to represent Malaysia in international matches.

FAM and the seven naturalised footballers were then penalised by Fifa with a fine and suspensions.

Last March, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld the seven players’ appeals against Fifa’s sanctions over the falsification of naturalisation and eligibility documents.

In its operative decision, issued without detailed reasons, CAS ruled that the players would still serve 12-month suspensions.

However, the bans applied only to official matches and not to all football-related activities, as was imposed by Fifa in the earlier ruling. - FMT