Former AFF Vice President: "Vietnam team deserves to attend Asian Cup more than Malaysia"

On the evening of November 3, the World Football Federation (FIFA) made an important decision, officially rejecting the appeal of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and 7 naturalized players including Gabriel Felipe, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel.

These players were suspended by FIFA for another year. Each had to pay a fine of 2,000 Swiss francs (about 66 million VND). FAM was fined 350,000 Swiss francs (about 11.6 billion VND).

According to former Vice President of the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Duong Vu Lam, FIFA's decision could significantly change Southeast Asian football. However, sharing with Dan Tri reporter , Mr. Duong Vu Lam assessed that the case is not yet closed because FAM and the 7 players involved can bring the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Former AFF Vice President:

FIFA rejects Malaysian football's appeal (Photo: VFF).

The case is not over yet.

What do you think about FIFA's rejection of FAM's appeal and the 7 Malaysian naturalized players using fake documents?

- Actually, FIFA's rejection of the above appeal is not too surprising, because FIFA had previously provided valuable evidence, showing that they clearly knew the origin of the Malaysian naturalized players.

FAM and the 7 naturalized players involved may not be able to prove otherwise, meaning they cannot present a more convincing case than the one FIFA has. Therefore, FAM and the 7 naturalized Malaysian players failed in their appeal.

However, the case is not over yet, as FAM and the seven naturalized players involved can take the matter to CAS. If they do so, the proceedings and trial will take many more months.

Is it possible for Malaysian football to turn the tables at CAS, sir?

- Regarding this, I dare to affirm that CAS is an agency completely independent of the world football village. They are not influenced by FIFA or any other sports organization in the world.

Former AFF Vice President:

Malaysian football plans to pursue the case to the end (Photo: TH).

Even Vietnamese football had its FIFA decision overturned by CAS more than 20 years ago, regarding the case of coach Letard (French). In August 2002, VFF fired coach Letard and compensated the French coach with 3 months of salary. FIFA agreed with VFF's decision.

But Mr. Letard brought the matter to CAS, before CAS forced VFF to compensate the remaining term of this coach's contract, with the compensation amount being more than 5 times higher than the original figure (197,800 USD compared to 35,000 USD). Therefore, even FIFA cannot predict CAS's decisions.

This depends on what documents Malaysia prepares to submit to CAS. If Malaysian football pursues the case to the end, there may be a first instance and an appeal, so we cannot predict the outcome. In addition to being time-consuming, bringing the matter to CAS is also laborious and costly. Both the plaintiff and the defendant must appear continuously, whenever they are summoned by CAS.

The ruling that changed Southeast Asian football

Technically, how does FIFA's ruling affect Malaysian football?

- This is a very influential decision. After these 7 key players are suspended, the Malaysian team will certainly be weakened. Now, when facing teams in the region, they will have to return to the image before they had these 7 players. The Malaysian team will be weaker than many teams in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Also related to the Malaysian team, if they fail to bring the case to CAS, this team could be eliminated from the 2027 Asian Cup, and Malaysian football could even be banned from international competition for a period of time. Not only that, the reputation of Malaysian football will be seriously damaged.

Former AFF Vice President:

Malaysian football and many football teams in Southeast Asia will be more cautious in naturalization decisions (Photo: NST).

Even FIFA's rejection of Malaysia's football appeal not only affects Malaysia, but also affects all of Southeast Asian football.

Can you elaborate on how FIFA's ruling on Malaysian football affects Southeast Asian football?

- Firstly, when a football country is punished for violating the regulations on naturalization of players, the remaining football countries are forced to be more cautious with this policy. Teams in the region will no longer naturalize foreign players indiscriminately. From then on, the competition between teams in Southeast Asia will become fairer.

In addition, when naturalizing, football countries will from now on move towards safer and more transparent solutions. For example, they will naturalize players who have played for 5 years in their home country, according to FIFA rules, as in the case of players Nguyen Xuan Son and Do Hoang Hen in Vietnam.

Or football countries will be more serious in finding the original birth certificates of the father or mother, grandfather or grandmother of players born abroad, before naturalizing these players.

And once football in Southeast Asia becomes more cautious and transparent in naturalizing foreign players, will this benefit the Vietnamese team?

- Whether it is beneficial or not cannot be confirmed immediately. However, in any work, transparency is always necessary. Vietnamese football is doing this very transparently, while somewhere else has such transparent football, it is certainly unfair.

Former AFF Vice President:

Football teams in Southeast Asia will now examine the original records of naturalized players more carefully (Photo: ASEAN Football).

Therefore, FIFA's rejection of the appeal of Malaysian football is to restore this justice to us. Without FIFA's decision, it is not impossible that other football countries will naturalize their players without regard to the true origin of the players they select.

Without FIFA’s ruling on Malaysian football, we cannot be sure that there will not be a risk that another footballing background will “magically” change the profiles of foreign-born players to make them appear to be Southeast Asian players. This will lead to a change in the professional quality of teams in the region, but not in reality.

The Vietnam team also needs to change.

So what will happen to Southeast Asian football's competitiveness after FIFA rejected Malaysia's appeal?

- This competition will return to the true nature of the professional capacity of each football and each team. For example, CAS will soon rule that Malaysia football lost the case, meaning that what this team won in the past stage of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers did not come from real capacity.

Former AFF Vice President:

The Vietnamese team also needs to change, because we have played poorly since the beginning of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers until now (Photo: Khoa Nguyen).

Their real ability is not stronger than ours, they will be defeated by the Vietnamese team and will have to return the ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup finals to the Vietnamese team. That is the reality between Vietnamese and Malaysian football, based on the in-depth development of these two football teams over the years.

Looking at the entire Southeast Asia region, things will also develop in a similar direction. How football develops, how investment is made from the root to the tip, the results at the national team level will be corresponding.

Does that mean the Vietnamese team deserves to be present at the 2027 Asian Cup finals?

- More deserving than Malaysia, if they cannot prove once again that they have falsified the records of naturalized players, after they brought the matter to CAS. However, that does not mean that the Vietnamese team does not need to improve anything, that does not mean that the Vietnamese team does not need to learn anything.

In fact, we have had three consecutive disappointing matches in the Asian Cup qualifiers, including a 0-4 loss to Malaysia (June 10), a 3-1 win over Nepal (October 9) and a 1-0 win over Nepal (October 14). There are many points to discuss about the playing style and spirit of the Vietnamese team in the three matches mentioned above.

If we continue to prepare our personnel like the previous 3 matches, if we continue to play with the same spirit as the last 3 matches, then the possibility of the Vietnamese team getting a ticket to the final round of the 2027 Asian Cup will still leave many worries. Therefore, in addition to waiting for the final result for the Malaysian team, the Vietnamese team itself must also change itself, improve its image and capacity.

Thank you for the conversation!

Former AFF Vice President: