🔗 Share this article The Malaysian Football Association Denies FIFA Allegations of Forged Player Citizenship Documents, Vows to Appeal Sanctions The Football Association of Malaysia (Malaysia's football governing body) has announced it will contest FIFA's ruling to sanction the organization for supposedly forging the nationality papers of seven foreign-born players, who have now been banned from playing for the national team for one year. FIFA's Claims and Penalties In the ninth month, FIFA imposed a fine of $438,000 on FAM and suspended the players after finding that their ancestors were not born in Malaysia as stated, but rather in the South American nation, Brazil, the European country and Spain. The global football governing body reiterated its assertions about falsified documentation in a disciplinary committee report published on Monday. Each of the individuals – who all took part in Malaysia's 4-0 victory over the Vietnamese team in the qualifying match for the 2027 Asian Cup this June – was also fined twenty-five hundred dollars. The implicated individuals includes born in Spain Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Garces and Iraurgui, born in Argentina Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Imanol Javier Machuca, as well as Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano who was born in the Netherlands, and Figueiredo who was hails from the South American country. FIFA's Position on Forgery "Forgery represents, pure and simple, a form of cheating," stated FIFA in its findings. "Forging documents strikes at the very core of the basic tenets of football, not only those regulating a player’s eligibility to represent a national team, but also the essential values of a fair game and the concept of sportsmanship," added Jorge Palacio, vice-chair of FIFA's disciplinary committee. FAM's Reply and Appeal Plan FIFA's report claims that the Malaysian association admitted it "received inquiries by external agencies regarding the athletes' ancestry and failed to personally confirm the validity of the documentation." "Initial documentation indicated a stark difference to the submitted papers," it noted. FIFA also said it was "able to obtain the relevant original documents easily," which revealed a "lack of proper diligence" by the Malaysian body. The Football Association of Malaysia reacted to the global body's allegations in a official communication on Tuesday, maintaining the inconsistencies were the result of an "procedural mistake" and the individuals are "legitimate Malaysian citizens." "Allegations that the athletes 'obtained or were aware of fake documents' are baseless as no solid evidence has been presented so far," the announcement declared. The association will submit an formal challenge of FIFA's decision, using authentic papers that have been certified by the national authorities. Regional Context and Political Responses South-east Asian countries have lately engaged in hiring campaigns for foreign-born athletes, inspired by Indonesia's strategy of bringing in Dutch-born footballers from the overseas community. The country's minister for sports, Hannah Yeoh, stated in a statement that "FAM needs to complete the challenge procedure and that they cannot remain silent but must respond clearly to every disclosure from the global authority." "Fans are upset, disappointed and disappointed," she added. Current Status and Forthcoming Games Regardless of doubt surrounding the squad's lineup, Malaysia is now ranked one hundred twenty-third in FIFA's AFC ranking and is set to compete in qualifying matches for the Asian Cup this month, facing the Laotian team on the upcoming Thursday.