PETALING JAYA: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) are treading cautiously as they prepare to appeal against FIFA’s decision to fine the national body and ban seven mixed heritage players for irregularities in their registration documents.
Acting FAM president Datuk Yusoff Mahadi (pic) confirmed that a meeting was held at the FAM headquarters in Kelana Jaya on Monday (Sept 30) to brief the executive council members on the issue and discuss the next course of action.
"We had a meeting on Tuesday to brief the executive council members on the situation, the sanctions and what is next for the body to work on in solving the matter," said Yusoff when contacted.
"It is best they know what is happening from us than from others. We will now wait for the grounds of judgement made by FIFA and also the Football Tribunal verdict by them," Yusoff said, adding that FAM would only be able to frame their appeal once FIFA’s detailed judgement was received.
"Once that is done, we will come out with the arguments for appeal based on the facts provided by FIFA. If the appeal is unsuccessful, then we will look at another avenue, which is CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport)," he added.
When asked when FIFA’s full report would arrive, Yusoff replied, "We expect it to happen by this week."
He declined to elaborate further on the technical error that led to the punishment or to confirm the players’ citizenship status.
"For now, I can’t say more until the facts have arrived. We can’t go deeper until the grounds of judgment are in our hands,” he said.
"All I want to assert here is the fact that works are ongoing to deal with this situation."
Last Friday, FIFA fined FAM 350,000 Swiss francs (RM1.8mil) and imposed 12-month bans on seven heritage players - Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Jon Irazabal, Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Imanol Machuca and Joao Figueiredo - following findings of irregularities in their registration documents.
