The Malaysian football community is in turmoil after the speech of Mr. Datuk Mohd Hisamudin Yahaya - member of the Executive Committee of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), when he used a family photo as "prove" to protect naturalized player Joao figueiredo.
figureiredo was among the seven players whose naturalization documents were forged by FAM. On social media, he posted a photo with his family and an Asian woman believed to be his grandmother. Hisamudin Yahaya later shared this image, affirming that this is evidence that figueiredo has a valid Malaysian goal.
They want evidence, we have pictures. This is a testament to the legal origin of Malaysian naturalized players, he wrote on social media. This statement angered Malaysian public opinion. Many fans criticized FAM for taking the transparency and legality of the player naturalization process lightly.
Previously, on September 26, FIFA concluded that FAM had forged documents to naturalize 7 foreign players, including figureiredo, for the match against Vietnam in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. FAM was fined 350,000 Swiss francs (equivalent to about 1.8 million Malaysian ringgit), while each player was fined 2,000 Swiss francs and banned from all football activities for 12 months.
The incident is fueling a wave of demands for FAM to reform comprehensively, while promoting the development of local players instead of depending on cases of high-risk naturalization.
