THE Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) appeal against International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) sanctions over the eligibility of seven heritage players will be decided by its appeal committee on Oct 30.
The latest development was confirmed by FAM’s legal counsel Serge Vittoz on the aforementioned issue.
“The decision was issued by FIFA on Sept 26. On Oct 14, within the prescribed deadline, we filed an appeal. We have learned today that the decision would be issued on Oct 30 by the appeal committee (FIFA).
“The decision will be taken on Oct 30 and most likely notified to the parties either the same day or a few days later,” he told a press conference here, today.
Vittoz, who is an international sports lawyer with Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm based in Geneva and London, said that FAM would still have the option to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) should the outcome be unfavourable.
“After this decision from the appeal committee, if the players or FAM are not satisfied with the decision, they may still appeal to CAS which will take some time to be resolved,” he said.
Vittoz said the primary goal of the appeal is to protect the players and demonstrate that FAM had no involvement in any alleged document forgery related to the heritage players’ eligibility.
“The primary objective of FAM in this appeal is to protect the players and to make FIFA understand that the players didn’t have to do with anything in this case.
“The second objective is to make FIFA understand that FAM as an institution didn’t have any implication on any forgery, which is the violation that is put forward by FIFA,” he said.
Last month, FAM and seven naturalised players - Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel - were penalised by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee after being found guilty of violating Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) related to document falsification.
In a statement, FIFA said FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the eligibility of the players, allowing them to compete in the third-round match of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10.
As a result, FAM was fined CHF350,000 (approximately RM1.8 million), while each player was fined CHF2,000 (about RM10,560) and suspended for 12 months from all football-related activities, effective from the date of notification of the decision.
In a previous statement, FAM explained that it had identified a technical error in the submission process involving the seven players’ documents, which was made by an administrative staff member.
FAM had also stated that it did not rule out the possibility of taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if the appeal at the FIFA level fails to yield a positive outcome. - Bernama
