Malaysian football naturalisation scandal

Common card · No. 372543

In September 2025, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee fined the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and imposed fines and 12-month suspensions on seven foreign-born players of the Malaysia national football team. FIFA found that the players' eligibility rested on forged documents that claimed their grandparents were born in Malaysia; the grandparents had in fact been born in Argentina, Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands. The players had been naturalised as Malaysian citizens under FAM's recruitment of "heritage players", which began after the national team fell to its lowest FIFA ranking in 2018. FAM denied wrongdoing and appealed the sanctions. The FIFA Appeal Committee rejected it on 3 November 2025, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed a further appeal on 5 March 2026, while slightly easing the players' punishments. FIFA overturned the results of three of Malaysia's friendlies into 0–3 defeats, and the Asian Football Confederation did the same to the team's wins over Nepal...

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