Difficulties have exceptions
On the night of November 3, FIFA's Reprimand Committee announced that it had rejected the appeal of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and 7 players for forging and distorting documents related to naturalization.
Accordingly, FAM still has to pay a fine of more than 11 billion VND. 7 players including Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, facundo Tomas Garces, Rodrigo Julian Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, Joao Vitor Brandao figueiredo, Jon Irazabal Iraurgui and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano are suspended for 12 months (as of September 26) and have paid more than VND66 million/person.
Malaysia's last hope is the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The organization has 10 days to request the decision to state FIFA's reasons and 21 days to appeal to the CAS.
However, at this time, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will immediately handle FAM in general and the Malaysian team in particular after receiving the case file from FIFA. This information was also shared by AFC General Secretary - Windsor John with the media 4 days ago.
The heaviest punishment that the AFC will impose on Malaysia is to ban them from qualifying for the 2027 and 2031 Asian Cups, and at the same time, to lose matches in which the team used players against regulations, specifically in the matches against Nepal and Vietnam in the first leg of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.
According to regulations, this process is not expected to last longer than March 31, 2026, the end of the final qualifying round to ensure the basis for determining the teams that qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup finals.
Before the incident in Malaysia, the AFC had dealt with many cases of using players in the wrong position. Most recently in March 2025, this organization handled Sanfrecce Hiroshima losing 0-3 to Lion City Sailors for using striker Valere Germain for an unused suspension.
In December 2020, AFC held Al Nasr (Saudi Arabia) to a 3-0 defeat to El Jaish (Qatar) in the 2020-21 AFC Champions League, forcing a player from Saudi Arabia to forge a player's application.
At the national team level, the AFC lost to Timor Leste in January 2017, because the team used 12 Brazilian players who did not meet FIFA's naturalization regulations between 2011 and 2016. As a result, Timor Leste lost 0-3 in all matches with illegal players, was banned from the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers and banned from naturalizing foreign players for 5 years.
How has the group situation of the Vietnam team changed?
In the case of Malaysia losing 0-3 in two matches against Nepal and Vietnam, the "Golden Star Warriors" will rise to the top of Group F of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers with 12 points. The next positions are Malaysia (6 points), Laos (3 points), and Nepal (3 points).
Based on that premise, the Vietnamese team will definitely participate in the 2027 Asian Cup finals if they get 1 more point against Laos in the next match. In the case of Malaysia being both defeated and eliminated from the qualifying round, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team will definitely win tickets to the Asian tournament.
This will be a notable news for the Vietnam team before preparing for the next matches, first of all the match against Laos in November.
In addition, the 2024 ASEAN Cup champion will welcome the return of striker Nguyen Xuan Son after 10 months of injury treatment.
