Seven foreign-born players for Malaysia's national football team have been cleared to keep competing after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) temporarily halted FIFA-imposed bans while their appeal is reviewed, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said on Tuesday.
Last September, FIFA fined the FAM 350,000 Swiss francs ($450,000) for submitting fake documents to naturalise the seven players, who were also fined and suspended for a year. The players, originally from Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands and Spain, were naturalised in an apparent breach of FIFA rules and played in a qualifying match for the 2027 Asian Cup, which Malaysia won against Vietnam.
The Malaysian federation later took the case to sport's highest court, based in Switzerland, after FIFA rejected its appeal. In a statement on Tuesday, FAM said CAS had approved a stay of execution, allowing the seven players to continue participating in all football-related activities until a final ruling is made.
The players involved are Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, João Figueiredo, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal and Héctor Hevel, all of whom have featured for the Harimau Malaya national team. “This means that the 12-month suspension from all football activities imposed by FIFA on the seven players has been temporarily lifted,” FAM said. “They are now allowed to continue their careers and participate in football-related activities until CAS makes a final ruling.”
Malaysian officials had claimed all seven players had a grandparent born in Malaysia, making them eligible to represent the country under FIFA rules. However, FIFA said its own investigators found contrasting information after they were “able to obtain the relevant original documents” from the players' countries of origin.
