KUALA LUMPUR: The Fifa Appeal Committee has exposed what it described as a coordinated attempt by the Football Association of Malaysia to naturalise foreign players using forged ancestral records,
Says reported.
While all seven footballers hold valid Malaysian passports, Fifa said their supposed Malaysian roots were fabricated through falsified birth certificates claiming grandparents from George Town, Melaka, Kuching and other locations.
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Fifa explained that none of the players met the required genuine link to Malaysia, prompting officials to manipulate documents to fast-track their eligibility for the national team.
Investigators found that FAM staff had reformatted and altered original ancestral birth certificates, switching birthplaces from South America and Europe to Malaysian towns before submitting the forgeries to the Home Ministry.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail previously told Parliament he had used constitutional discretion to waive residency requirements for the seven players.
The players named in the scandal include Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal, João Vítor Brandão Figueiredo and Héctor Hevel, all of whom falsely claimed Malaysian-born grandparents.
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Fifa uncovered the fraud by checking original records with foreign authorities, revealing errors such as “Luching” instead of Kuching and a forged certificate listing a grandmother as “male”.
Fifa said the players had also signed declarations claiming they had lived in Malaysia for at least 10 years, despite only arriving recently to join local clubs.
The governing body rejected FAM’s assertion that the forgeries were mere administrative adjustments and dismissed the players’ claims of blind trust and language barriers as unreasonable.
Fifa concluded that both FAM and the players showed gross negligence and instructed its Secretariat to investigate FAM internally and notify the police in Malaysia and the players’ home countries.
