The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has just officially issued a detailed document to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), only identifying the violations in the case involving 7 naturalized players of foreign origin.
The report stated that FAM had submitted fake documents and edited the birthplace of the players' ancestors to legalize the right to play for the national team.
According to the FIFA investigation conclusion, the ancestors of players Gabriel Arrocha (Spain), facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca (Argentina), Joao figueiredo (Brazil), Jon Iraurgui (Spaina) and Hector Hevel (Netherlands) are not of Malaysian origin as in FAM documents.
On the contrary, in the documents submitted to FIFA, FAM clearly stated the ancestors of all 7 players born in Malaysia - a key factor for players licensed to wear national team jerseys.
FIFA confirmed that from March to June 2025, FAM has sent documents to each player, asking for confirmation of eligibility to wear the national team jersey. After being "blue lighted" by FIFA, all 7 players played in the match against Vietnam on June 10 in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, in the match in which Malaysia won 4-0, Holgado and figueiredo scored.
However, FIFA later collected the original documents and discovered that the FAM records were fake or intentionally edited, especially the ancestral homeland section.
Meanwhile, the National Registration Commission (NRD) of Malaysia said it has never received the original document but only issued a copy based on the provided evidence.
FAM argued that they did not know the documents were forged, arguing that the mistake was only formal, did not change the legality or create an unfair advantage for the Malaysian team.
They asked FIFA to cancel the investigation, reject the accusations, keep the players' playing status and consider reducing or canceling all penalties.
However, FIFA rejected all arguments, affirming that this was no longer a formal foul but a serious violation of the regulations on "forgery", directly affecting the validity of players. Therefore, the penalty and suspension of 7 players with FAM were kept unchanged.
