Fifa S Red Card Naturalised Players National Team In Crisis

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 A storm of denial, questions, and confusion has erupted following sanctions by the world’s football governing body, Fifa, against the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven players.
The controversy centres on a sudden reversal by Fifa, which initially cleared the players’ eligibility.
The FAM has vowed to appeal the decision “utilising all available legal channels”. Prominent figures, including Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim and former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin, have publicly questioned Fifa’s rationale.
Their shared sentiment is clear - if the players were already approved through official Fifa processes, why the sudden reversal?
ADSThe likely answer is that Fifa’s subsequent investigations uncovered alleged forgeries in the documentation. This raises a fundamental question: What exactly are the rules for international player eligibility?
Fifa’s regulations are specific. While a player can represent a country whose nationality they hold (Article 5, Principle 1), they are permanently tied to the first national team they play an official match for (Article 5, Principle 3).
Harimau Malaya training session, 2024Crucially, for players with dual eligibility, Article 6 stipulates that a clear “connection” must be met. They can represent a country if they:
Were born there.
Have a parent or grandparent born there.
Have lived there continuously for at least five years.
The term “naturalisation” in this footballing context often refers to players gaining a new nationality specifically to play for a country with which they have no prior biological ties, relying solely on the residency or naturalisation certificate.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has defended the process, stating the naturalisations were conducted “rigorously” and in full compliance with the law, specifically Article 19(1) of the Federal Constitution.
Verification of footballers’ lineage
If the applications and prerequisites had been rigorously observed as claimed by Saifuddin, would the biological ties of the players be a factor in determining his naturalisation?
Yes. According to a note in the form of a witness statement dated Sept 19, made public by Tunku Ismail on his Instagram account, National Registration Department (NRD) director-general Badrul Hisham Alias, stated that the players provided the required documents with the names and identification details of their grandparents.
National Registration Department“In accordance with our internal procedures, NRD conducted a cross-examination and verification of this information. As part of this verification, the government also received documentation relating to all seven applicants issued in Argentina, Brazil, and Spain.
“These documents were reviewed and used as part of our internal cross-verification process to confirm the applicants’ lineage through their grandparents. This comparative assessment of foreign and domestic records was a standard measure undertaken to ensure accuracy and integrity in determining eligibility,” it said.
The NRD, he said, was unable to retrieve the original handwritten birth records from the historical archives. Accordingly, in line with current administrative practice, the NRD issued an official copy based on the evidence adduced that a birth had occurred.
“The discovery and confirmation of these birth records used as a supporting evidence of the government’s assessment and a part of fulfilling conditions, namely, period of residency in Malaysia, sufficient knowledge of Malay language, and good conduct provided sufficient grounds, under Article 19, to proceed with the issuance of naturalisation certificate of the applicants,” it concluded.
It is believed that this is the area of contention, leading to claims of forgery and falsification of documentation that Fifa has raised.
Badrul’s note was dated Sept 19, significant enough to suggest that Fifa had already initiated investigations and was seeking confirmation on the status of the players.
Investigators must have done their homework. It does not need a rocket scientist or an experienced sleuth to infer that something is not right by just using Google.
According to an NST report dated June 6, Harimau Malaya “welcomed four new heritage players” to bolster their squad ahead of their crucial match against Vietnam four days later.
“Argentina’s Imanol Machuca and Rodrigo Holgado, Brazil’s Joao Figueiredo, and Spain’s Jon Irazabal were officially announced as national team additions by the FA of Malaysia (FAM). The quartet had been training with the squad over the past week,” the report read.
How did they get sufficient knowledge of the Malay language in just under a week? This is the same question to which Fifa investigators found answers.
Citizenship rules vs football shortcuts
However, a significant discrepancy emerges. Article 19(3) of the Federal Constitution outlines a stringent residency requirement for naturalisation - an aggregate of 10 years out of 12 years, including the 12 months immediately before application. The ministry’s website also cites a requirement for adequate knowledge of the Malay language.
In the past, several foreign players were given citizenship. This prompts critical, unanswered questions:
How many of the sanctioned players had resided in Malaysia for over a decade?
How many possess adequate Malay language skills?
Given that Malaysia does not recognise dual citizenship, did these players formally renounce their original citizenships - Brazilian, Spanish, and Argentine to obtain “instant Malaysian citizenship”?
Were the residence period and language proficiency requirements overlooked?
I raised these questions in January last year after a 23-member “Malaysia” football team assembled at KLIA en route to Doha to play in the Asian Cup qualifiers on New Year’s Day last year.
The team included Corbin Ong (Barbadian father), Dion Cools (Belgian father), Junior Eldstål (Swedish father), Brendan Gan (born in Australia), Matthew Davies (born in Australia), Endrick Dos Santos (born in Brazil), Paulo Josue (born in Brazil), Romel Morales (born in Colombia), Stuart Wilkin (born in England), Daniel Ting (born in England), Darren Lok (born in England), Dominic Tan (born in Singapore), Natxo Insa (born in Spain), and Mohamadou Sumareh (born in The Gambia).
Malaysia vs Nepal, AFC Asian Cup qualification, March 2025I also asked: “How did they end up playing for Malaysia? Like instant noodles, there is also something called instant citizenship – courtesy of the generosity of the National Registration Department and the Home Ministry, who are willing to, not even circumvent, but break the law.”
No answers were forthcoming then, and neither will there be anything to expect now.
Ancestry rules expose deeper citizenship flaws
However, FAM should have known better. In October last year, Fifa confirmed that Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles player Mats Deijl does not meet the eligibility requirements to represent Malaysia through his ancestry.
In a statement, FAM said that 27-year-old Deijl only has Malaysian ancestry through his great-grandparent, not through his grandparents, as stipulated by regulations, and therefore cannot be considered a heritage player.
So, are the grandparents or parents of these foreign players in the team Malaysian citizens? If they are, I will be among the first at the head of the queue of journalists who would want to talk to them to get more information.
More importantly, the government and its systems are being scrutinised. To what extent were the documents forged, and who was complicit?
People have waited for years, if not decades, for their citizenship despite having been born in Malaysia. It is a travesty when journeymen arrive on our shores to flock to their trade and are given preferential, if not priority, treatment at the expense of locals.
The current crisis, therefore, appears not as a sudden shock, but as a foreseeable collision between the pursuit of competitive advantage and the strict, often conflicting, legal frameworks that govern international sport and national sovereignty.
The appeal process will now test whether the procedures followed by FAM can be reconciled with Fifa’s ultimate authority over international eligibility. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN started his journalistic career as a sports reporter and has been a close observer of sports and its administrators. Comments: [email protected].
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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