On the evening of September 26, the World Football Federation (FIFA) accused Malaysia of using invalid players and forging documents in the match against the Vietnam team on June 10.
The AFC said it has not yet taken any specific action. AFC Secretary General - Mr. Datuk Seri Windsor John - shared: "Our organization is waiting for the entire verdict and decision from the FIFA Football Court regarding the validity of the players of the Malaysian team".
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has applied a series of severe sanctions. Accordingly, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) must pay a fine of 350,000 Swiss Francs (about 11.5 billion VND). Each player involved was fined 2,000 Swiss Francs (about 66.1 million VND) and banned from all football activities for 12 months, from the effective date of the decision.
FIFA also announced: "FAM and the players will have 10 days to appeal. In addition, the issue of the players' playing status for the Malaysian national team has been transferred by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to the FIFA Football Court for consideration".
The verdict mentioned 7 naturalized players including: Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, facundo Tomas Garces, Rodrigo Julian Holcado, Imanol Secret Machuca, Joao Vitor Brandao figueiredo, Jon Irazabal Iraurgui and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano. All 7 players were present in the match between Malaysia and Vietnam. FIFA confirmed that FAM used fake documents to register the above group of players to compete.
According to experts, in addition to the match against Vietnam, the Malaysian team is likely to lose other matches in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. If this scenario happens, the group situation will change a lot, in which the Vietnamese team has a better chance of winning a ticket to the final round.
