The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Ethics and Disciplinary Committee announced on its official website on Tuesday that the Malaysian national team previously confirmed by FIFA to have fielded seven players with falsified "naturalized" identities, will have the results of two of their Asian Cup qualifiers, overturned and ruled as 0-3 losses.

According to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)'s official statement, the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee cited Article 56 – the use of ineligible players – and Article 35.1, ruling that Malaysia's results in the Asian Cup qualifiers against Nepal and Vietnam in the first half of 2025 will be overturned and ruled as 0-3 losses.

Malaysia had originally planned to win their home matches against Nepal on March 25, 2025, and Vietnam on June 10, 2025, with 2-0 and 4-0 victories respectively.

With the change in results, Vietnam, placed in the Group F, has secured qualification in advance from the group stage with 15 points from five wins out of five matches following the updated results.

Because the tournament format stipulates that only the top team in the group stage advances, Malaysia, finishing second with 9 points after having 6 points deducted, was eliminated in advance. The second leg match between the two teams on March 31st became a routine matter.

In addition, the AFC announced that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) would be fined US$50,000 for this controversy.

In response to this ruling, the FAM stated that it will submit a written application to the AFC to obtain the reasons for the ruling before deciding on further action, including appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

On the other hand, because FAM officials seem unwilling to admit wrongdoing since the scandal broke, and even publicly allowed three of the seven "naturalized" players with falsified identities to play in the 2026/27 Malaysian Super League as "legal Malaysians," this practice has drawn widespread criticism from netizens and the AFC.

Furthermore, 70 Malaysian fans spontaneously protested outside the FAM headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, holding banners.

The AFC said that it does not approve of the FAM actions and reiterated that the FA's system needs thorough reform to regain the recognition and respect of fans and the international football community.

What Happened

FIFA announced at the end of September that 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 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.

Later, FIFA presented the genuine birth certificates of the seven players' grandparents, effectively refuting the FA,'s claim that their grandparents were born in Penang, Malacca, or other states within Malaysia. The appeal was rejected, and the original ruling was upheld.

However, the FAM adamantly refused to admit wrongdoing, even dragging government officials into the controversy, thus expanding its scope.

Since the controversy began, Machuca, one of the players, has even been dismissed by his club, Velez Sarsfield, for his lack of integrity.

Original ruling upheld

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, Malaysian Super League defending champions Johor Darul Ta'zim and its owner, His Royal Highness Tunku Ismail.

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 initial reports were published, the author was criticized by some blindly supportive Malaysian Chinese fans. However, each subsequent major official sanctions have proven the author's suspicions to be correct from the beginning.

Image source: Internet / Bernama