PETALING JAYA — The Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) appeal against sanctions by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) over the eligibility of seven heritage players will be decided by its appeal committee on October 30.
FAM’s legal counsel Serge Vittoz confirmed the development today, saying that the association had filed its appeal within the prescribed deadline.
“The decision was issued by Fifa on September 26. On October 14, within the prescribed deadline, we filed an appeal. We have learned today that the decision will be issued on October 30 by Fifa’s appeal committee.
“The decision will be taken on October 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, an international sports lawyer with the Geneva- and London-based law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, said 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 to demonstrate that FAM had no involvement in any alleged document forgery related to the players’ eligibility.
“The primary objective of FAM in this appeal is to protect the players and to make Fifa understand that the players had nothing to do with this case.
“The second objective is to make Fifa understand that FAM, as an institution, had no implication in any forgery — which is the violation 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 players’ eligibility, 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 said it had identified a technical error in the submission process involving the seven players’ documents, which was made by an administrative staff member.
FAM also said it did not rule out taking the matter to CAS if the Fifa-level appeal fails to yield a positive outcome.
