Fifa exposes fake birth claims in Malaysian football

KUALA LUMPUR – Football authority Fifa has released its grounds into

the suspension of seven foreign-born Malaysian footballers

on Oct 6, exposing significant discrepancies in the documents submitted by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

In the letter addressed to FAM and the seven naturalised players seen by The Straits Times, Fifa said it found that the grandparents of the players in question had been born in Spain, Argentina, Brazil and the Netherlands, and not in Malaysia.

This revelation further complicates Malaysia’s aim to qualify for the Asian Cup tournament ahead of its away match with Laos on Oct 9, with the seven players not to be named in the squad due to the suspension.

FAM has in response said that it would continue appealing the punishment.

“The Committee wished to highlight that it concurred with the conclusion of the Investigatory Reports, specifically, that the original birth certificates indicated a sharp contrast to the documentation provided,” said the decision by Mr Jorge Palacio, deputy chairman of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee.

The seven players in question are: Spain-born Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomas Garces and Jon Irazabal Iraurgui; Netherlands-born Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano; Argentina-born Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Imanol Javier Machuca; and Brazil-born Joao Vitor Brandao Figueiredo.

Fifa had on Sept 26 fined FAM 350,000 Swiss francs (S$565,000), while each of the seven players was fined 2,000 Swiss francs and banned from all football-related activities for 12 months.

Complaints were lodged against Malaysia for allegedly using “doctored documentation” to select the seven players in its squad for the Asian Cup qualification match with Vietnam on June 10, which it won 4-0. Four of the seven started the match.

The drubbing was Malaysia’s first win against Vietnam in a decade. It may now have to forfeit the match, a result that would reverberate over the region.

According to Fifa, FAM had claimed that the grandparents of the seven had been born, among others, in Melaka, Penang, Johor and Sarawak.

Fifa’s investigations however gathe red copies of the original birth certificates of their grandparents to contradict the claims.

For example, Garces’ grandfather – Carlos Rogelio Fernandez – was said to have been born in Penang, but Fifa said his original birthplace was actually Villa María Selva, in Santa Fe de la Cruz, Argentina.

Similarly, Serrano’s grandfather Hendrik Jan Hevel was allegedly born in Melaka, but was found to have been born in The Hague, Netherlands.

Under Fifa rules, a naturalised player must not only hold a valid national passport, but also meet eligibility criteria. These include having a biological parent or a grandparent born in the country, or having lived there continuously for at least five years after the age of 10.

Such rules are to prevent the abusive practice of “nationality shopping”, where a football association seeks players who have been overlooked in their home countries by offering them a financial incentive and new citizenship.

Fifa’s committee also noted that Malaysia’s National Registration Department (NRD) has never received the original birth certificates, and had issued its own copies based on secondary information and foreign documents from Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

“The NRD further admitted that it could not retrieve the original handwritten records and therefore issued official copies based on evidence that a birth had occurred.

“This admission, so finds the Committee, indicates that the Malaysian government’s validation process may not have been based on original documents, which calls into question the thoroughness of FAM’s verification process,” it said.

FAM, in a statement on Oct 7, confirmed it received Fifa’s grounds of its decision and announced it will continue its appeal through official legal channels.

“The association strongly denied that players deliberately sought to circumvent eligibility rules,” it said.

FAM emphasised that all documents and supporting evidence were submitted in line with Malaysian procedures and that players acted in good faith, relying on its verification and registration process.

It also noted that the case involves sensitive government procedures for issuing and validating documentation, which are legally protected under Malaysian law.

In a Facebook post on Oct 7, Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh urged FAM to complete its appeal and called on Malaysians to continue backing the team in its match with Laos this week.

“FAM cannot remain silent and must respond clearly to all the revelations made by FIFA. Local football supporters feel hurt, angry and disappointed,” Ms Yeoh posted.

FAM had in 2018 set out to recruit naturalised or “heritage players” to improve the national team’s performance, in a bid to follow Indonesia’s success with its Dutch diaspora.

In March that year, Malaysia was ranked No. 178 in the world out of 221 countries – its lowest position since 1992. It has rebounded to No. 123 as at September.

Since 2018, the national team has included several naturalised players who are popular with the fans. Among them are Belgium-raised captain Dion Cools, UK-born La’Vere Corbin-Ong and Stuart Wilkin, Australia-born Matthew Davies, US-born Wan Kuzain and Finland-born Nooa Laine. All of them have at least one Malaysian parent.

Other national team players were naturalised after a long career in the local league, such as Gambia-born Mohamadou Sumareh, Brazil-born Paulo Josue and Argentina-born Ezequiel Aguero.

There is no limit to how many naturalised players in a national team can be on the pitch at any one time.

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