PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Asian Cup in Riyadh appear to be hanging by a thread after FIFA imposed sanctions for fielding ineligible players.
On Tuesday, FIFA’s disciplinary committee overturned the results of three international friendlies involving Malaysia, awarding 3-0 defeats in all three matches.
The ruling stemmed from findings that the national team, under coach Peter Cklamovski, had fielded seven heritage players who were ineligible to represent the country, allegedly through the use of falsified documents.
The seven players are Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel.
As a result, FIFA not only handed Malaysia 3-0 defeats against Singapore, Palestine and Cape Verde, but also imposed a CHF10,000 (RM51,414) fine on FAM.
This is the second sanction handed to the Football Association of Malaysia over the alleged document falsification.
Previously, FIFA had upheld a 12-month suspension for the seven players, in addition to ordering each of them to pay a CHF2,000 (RM10,411) fine to FIFA.
FAM were also ordered to pay a further CHF350,000 (RM1.8 million) fine.
Those same seven players were also deployed in several matches during this year’s Asian Cup qualifying campaign.
Although the qualifiers fall under the jurisdiction of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rather than FIFA, there are concerns that the AFC could take similar action in response to the breaches committed by Malaysia.
Harimau Malaya currently top Group F with 15 points and still have one remaining match against Vietnam in March next year.
However, the two Asian Cup qualifying matches involving the suspended players could see Malaysia lose six points, a scenario that could eliminate the nation even with one match left to play.
FAM are currently awaiting a written explanation from FIFA regarding the second sanction handed down yesterday.
“FAM will submit a formal request for the written reasoning from FIFA’s disciplinary committee before considering the next steps to be taken on this matter,” the association said in a statement.
The executive committee will meet on Monday not only to discuss the FIFA sanctions but also to review the findings of the Independent Investigation Committee, which failed to identify the mastermind behind the document falsification scandal.
