FAM President Datuk Joehari Ayub affirmed that the management agency had complied with all appropriate procedures and denied that the spreading accusations were unfounded. He shared: "FIFA has checked. We have complied with the regulations and rules.
The controversy was caused by Indonesia's Disway ID media channel, when they thought that Malaysia's 4-0 victory over Vietnam on June 10 could be canceled, because Malaysia used an unqualified naturalized player. This channel also believes that the Vietnamese team will be awarded a 3-0 victory.
The report also stated that FAM could be fined $2 million and face further sanctions from the World Football Federation (FIFA) if FIFA finds evidence that Malaysia has failed to comply with regulations on player naturalization.
In the 4-0 victory over Vietnam, Malaysia introduced 5 new naturalized players: facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Joao figureiredo, Rodrigo Hidalgo and Jon Irazabal. They played very well, contributing greatly to helping Harimau Malaya (the nickname of the Malaysian team) defeat the Vietnamese team for the first time since December 2014.
FAM has stated that the naturalization process of the players has been fully reviewed and approved by FIFA.
However, the Indonesian media channel stated that the internal investigation of this world agency had discovered conflicts in the naturalization documents.
Up to now, neither FIFA nor the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have made any official statements and no official complaints have been made public.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence or action, the issue has attracted the attention of Southeast Asian football fans, especially on social media, as many have called for an official investigation.
In the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Malaysian team of coach Peter Cklamovski is currently leading F with 6 points, ranked above the Vietnam and Laos teams (all with 3 points). Meanwhile, the Nepal team has no points.
Before the controversy over naturalized players, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) accepted to let Malaysia participate in the CAFA Nations Cup, organized by the Central Association of Football Associations (CAFA). The tournament will take place from August 26 to September 9 in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The tournament will have the participation of many teams. In addition to Malaysia, the tournament is expected to have the participation of Iran, Uzbekistan, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
