FIFA announced on its official website on Friday that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was fined for forging documents and illegally fielding seven ineligible "naturalized" players in a crucial Asian Cup qualifier.

According to FIFA's official statement, the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee ruled that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) had violated Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC), which governs the falsification and manipulation of documents.

The investigation revealed that the FAM submitted falsified player eligibility documents for review in order to have some players naturalized and play in Malaysia's AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against Vietnam.

Finally, after a thorough investigation, the FAM was found to have falsified the documents of seven "naturalized" players and fielded them in the match against Vietnam, a serious violation of Article 22 of the FDC.

As a result, the FIFA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee fined the FAM 350,000 Swiss francs.

The seven "naturalized" players — Hector Hevel, Imanol Machuca, Jon Irazabal, Rodrigo Holgado, Facundo Garces, and João Figueiredo, who scored in the match — were each fined 2,000 Swiss francs and banned for one year. During this period, they are prohibited from participating in any football-related activities.

Furthermore, following complaints from numerous other national football associations, the FIFA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee and the FIFA Court of Arbitration will investigate the eligibility documents of other naturalized players to determine if their identities were also falsified.

FIFA has notified the aforementioned players and the FAM of the ruling, and they have 10 days to request a copy of the written reasons for the decision.

Following the announcement, the FAM has expressed strong dissatisfaction and confirmed that it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within seven days.

They stated that the authorities had indeed received confirmation from FIFA that these players were eligible to represent the Malaysian national team and reiterated that the FAM has always acted in good faith and with the principles of nomination.

Something fishy has been going on for a long time.

In fact, it is worth noting that this is not the first time that the FAM and the Malaysian national team have been embroiled in controversy over the issue of naturalized players.

Since October 2024, our website has been one of the few online media outlets globally to have questioned this issue.

Ever since then, our website have repeatedly pointed out that the issue of the Malaysian national team's abuse of the player naturalization system appears to be closely linked to the notoriously infamous local online media FR FUTURE TALENTS and Johor Darul Ta'zim, the Malaysian Super League champions controlled by His Royal Highness Tunku Ismail, the Regent of Johor.

Manchester United youngster Ethan Wheatley, former Burnley captain Josh Brownhill, and Dutch player Ferdy Druijf are among the players who have openly refuted FR FUTURE TALENTS.

However, after the report was released, the author was criticized by some Malaysian Chinese fans who blindly supported the FAM. However, the heavy sanctions imposed by FIFA now confirm that the author's suspicions were correct from the beginning.