PETALING JAYA: Argentine press have produced documents that reveal Imanol Machuca’s grandmother is not from Malaysia, adding another twist to the controversy surrounding players accused of falsifying their ancestry to represent the national football team.
The Argentinian daily CDN reported that official records show Concepcion Agueda Alaniz, allegedly Machuca’s Malaysian-born grandmother, was actually born in Roldan, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, in 1954.
The finding comes after CDN’s earlier report that Facundo Garces' grandfather was also not born in Penang as claimed, but in the city of Santa Fe.
This week, FIFA confirmed the one-year suspensions of seven players accused of falsifying documents related to their ancestry.
Besides Machuca, Garces, the other five are Rodrigo Holgado, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal, Hector Hevel and Joao Figueiredo.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was also fined 350,000 Swiss francs (approximately RM1.8mil) after its appeal was rejected by FIFA.
FAM planned to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
