In the 19 disciplinary documents just released by FIFA regarding the illegal naturalization of 7 foreign players of Malaysia, there are many notable details, showing the seriousness of the incident and the strong reaction from the highest authority in world football.
Accordingly, just 1 day after Malaysia beat Vietnam 4-0 in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers (June 10, 2025), FIFA received a complaint on June 11. Although the identity of the person/organization submitting the petition was not disclosed, the reception and processing showed that there was a specific and well-founded source of information.
On August 22 and 28, FIFA officially opened disciplinary procedures and the Football Federation of Malaysia was notified. Coincidentally, this was also the time when Mr. Datuk Joehari Ayub - Chairman of FAM submitted his resignation, causing many questions from the public.
Accordingly, FIFA determined that the fraud was based on a birth certificate submitted by FAM in January 2025. However, after the investigation, FIFA collected birth certificates and confirmed that the players were not born in Malaysia as reported in the edited documents sent by FAM.
FAM argued that if there were mistakes, it would be a formal violation and not giving the Malaysian team any competitive advantage. However, FIFA completely rejected this argument, arguing that this was a serious act of forging documents, directly affecting international competition status and needed to be strictly handled.
FIFA also stressed that it could easily collect the original documents, while Malaysia only provided renewed copies, further raising doubts about FAM's transparency in the incident.
Previously, on September 26, the Football Association of Malaysia was fined 350,000 CHF, while 7 naturalized players including Rodrigo Holcado, facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Joao figueiredo and Jon Irazabal were banned from playing for 12 months and each was fined 2,000 CHF.
