08/10/2025

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WEDNESDAY | OCT 8, 2025

Malaysian Paper

Forgery! ‘Heritage’ players’ grandparents not born in Malaysia, says Fifa

T HE International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) has con cluded that several players under the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) made use of forged documents to evade and cir cumvent its regulations to be eligible to repre sent Harimau Malaya. According to investigatory reports by the Fifa Disciplinary Committee (the Secretariat), they found a list of evidence on the players, which contrasted with the one filed by the FAM respectively in the proceedings. “The results of the investigations were set out in two reports ,” it said. It said the Secretariat was able to gather a copy of the original birth certificates of the grandmother or grandfather of the players involved, which indicated their original places of birth as: Maria Belen Concepcion Martin (Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain), Carlos Rogelio Fernandez (Villa Maria Selva, Santa Fe de la Cruz, Argentina), Omar Eli Holgado Gardon (Caseros, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Concepcion Agueda Alaniz (Roldan, Argentina), Nair de Oliveira (Abre Campo, Brazil), Gregorio Irazabal y Lamiquiz (Villa de Guernica y Luno, Viscaya, Spain) and Hendrik Jan Hevel (The Hague, Netherlands). However, it said the one filed by FAM indi cated that Concepion Martin was bron in Malacca, Rogelio Fernandez (Penang), Holgado Gardon (Georgetown), Agueda Alaniz (Penang), De Oliveira (Johor), Irazabal y Lamiquiz (Kuching) and Jan Hevel (Malacca Straits Settlements). Earlier yesterday, FAM confirmed receiving the full written judgement from Fifa regarding the decision to suspend the seven heritage players for allegedly violating its disciplinary code. FAM, in a statement, announced that it will now formally lodge an appeal through the proper legal channels, as all supporting evi

decision’s date of notification. Meanwhile Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said she takes seriously the Grounds of Judgement issued yesterday by Fifa regarding action taken against FAM and the seven players. Yeoh said Fifa’s statement in the 19-page document was serious and damaging to the country’s image. She said there were many areas that needed improvement based on Fifa’s findings in the document. “Although FAM has issued a statement say ing it was a technical error, a mistake by their staff, all of that needs improvement because the 19-page statement contains very serious remarks by Fifa, which tarnish the country’s image. “And I also understand that all local football fans are naturally angry, disappointed and want to see improvements,” she said at a press con ference after welcoming home the national para-athletics heroes and heroines from the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 yesterday. At the same time, Yeoh said the Youth and Sports Ministry maintains its position of waiting until the appeal process is completed before issuing any official statement. “FAM must complete this appeal process before we make any special announcement... because the appeal process is not over yet. “After the Grounds of Judgement, I was informed that FAM has three days to state its intention to appeal, followed by five days to file the appeal,” she said. Yeoh also called on local football fans to con tinue supporting the Harimau Malaya squad, which will play two Group F matches in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers against Laos — in Vientiane tomorrow and in Kuala Lumpur next Tuesday. – Bernama Para athlete Datuk Abdul Latif Romly shows off the gold medal he won upon arriving at KLIA Terminal 1 yesterday after participating in the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India last September. Abdul Latif tops rewards list

dence is complete and ready for imme diate submission to Fifa. FAM stated that it takes

FAM had submitted falsified documents to verify the players’ eligibility, which subsequently allowed

particular issue with sev eral of the conclusions drawn by Fifa, espe cially the allegation that the players obtained falsified documents or deliberately attempted to cir cumvent eligibility rules. Last month, FAM and the seven heritage players were sanctioned by Fifa’s Disciplinary Committee after being found to have vio lated Article 22 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code in rela tion to the falsification of documents.

them to feature in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10. The seven sanc tioned players are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel. As a result, FAM has been fined CHF350,000 million), while each player has (RM1.85

been fined CHF2,000 (approximately RM10,600) and handed a 12-month suspension from all football related activities, effective from the

In its statement, Fifa alleged that

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