FAM will take the heritage players case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after FIFA rejected their appeal over document falsification.
THE Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) will begin the process of taking the case regarding the eligibility of their seven heritage players to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
FAM acting president Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mahadi said this is to ensure justice is upheld and to defend the integrity of the players’ eligibility process as stipulated by the government and the relevant authorities.
“FAM would like to state that we have received the full written reasoning behind FIFA’s decision to reject the association’s appeal in connection with the eligibility of the seven heritage players.
“FAM remain committed to defending the rights of players who are eligible to represent the country, and will ensure that every action is taken professionally, transparently and in accordance with appropriate legal channels,” he posted on FAM’s Facebook page today.
The FIFA Appeal Committee, in its written decision today, said attempts to forge documentation with the purpose of deceiving governing bodies and circumventing applicable regulations constitute a serious violation of the rules.
According to the committee, such conduct undermines the fairness of the game, erodes public confidence, and cannot, under any circumstances, be tolerated.
In addition to upholding the penalty imposed on FAM and the seven players involved, FIFA also instructed its secretariat to take immediate steps to launch a formal investigation into the internal operations of the national governing body.
The FIFA Appeal Committee also revealed that all seven heritage players were born abroad.
The committee said that Gabriel Felipe Arrocha was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain; Facundo Garces (Santa Fe, Argentina); Rodrigo Holgado (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Imanol Manchuca (Rosario, Argentina); Joao Figueiredo (Sao Paolo, Brazil); Jon Irazabal (Bilbao, Spain) and Hector Hevel (Leidschendam, the Netherlands).
On Nov 3, FIFA rejected appeals by FAM and the seven naturalised players.
The FIFA Appeal Committee upheld the penalty imposed by the Disciplinary Committee of the world governing body against FAM and the seven naturalised players for offences related to the falsification of documents under Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.
Consequently, FAM was ordered to pay a fine of CHF350,000 (approximately RM1.8 million), while each player was fined CHF2,000 (about RM11,000). The seven players were also suspended for 12 months from football-related activities.
