Recently, Malaysian media reported that Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim emphasized that the investigation into the case of forging documents of 7 naturalized players is being conducted transparently and without any cover-up. He said that the Government of this country considered the incident a serious matter and absolutely must not take it lightly.
He also mentioned the lack of patience of the public and the desire for strong immediate measures, but every handling step must follow the correct process.
In the context of the first appeal being rejected by FIFA, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is preparing to submit a petition to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). At the same time, two independent committees, including a group established by FAM itself, are conducting separate investigations to clarify the incident.
However, the Malaysian government is bound by international regulations and is not allowed to interfere in the appeal process or internal activities of FAM.
The AFC has also warned that all statements by Malaysian officials about the federation's governance must be extremely cautious, especially those that can be understood as pressuring the FAM leadership to resign.
The AFC secretary general said that although FAM is facing a crisis, asking the federation's officials to resign is not the right thing to do. He reiterated that FIFA and the AFC can take severe sanctions against any federation to allow outside entities to dominate.
