Revealing the process of FIFA investigating naturalized Malaysian players

(Dan Tri) - To reach the recent verdict, the World Football Federation (FIFA) has been investigating Malaysian naturalized players for many months, tracing the origin of the documents of these naturalized players.

Information said that just one day after the Malaysian team had a surprising 4-0 victory over the Vietnamese team, in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers (June 10), on June 11, a complaint appeared accusing the dishonesty of the origin of Malaysian naturalized players.

The complaint alleges that five players, Gabriel Felipe (Brazilian), Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca (Argentina), Jon Irazabal Iraurgui (Spain) and Hector Alejandro Hevel (Netherlands), have unclear naturalization records.

Just one day after the Malaysian team unexpectedly defeated the Vietnamese team 4-0, a complaint against a naturalized Malaysian player was sent to FIFA (Photo: NST).

In this petition, the petitioner questions the unusually rapid naturalization of Malaysian players of foreign origin. The petitioner requests FIFA to review the original documents related to the said players.

After receiving the complaint, the World Football Federation quietly investigated. By September 26, FIFA had an initial conclusion that not only 5 but 7 naturalized Malaysian players used fake documents. These 7 players include Rodrigo Holgado, Facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Joao Figueiredo and Jon Irazabal.

According to information from FIFA, between March 19 and early June this year (just a few days before the match between Malaysia and the Vietnam team), the 7 players mentioned above were naturalized as Malaysian. This is a naturalization speed that has been commented by the international media as "lightning fast".

Compared with the recent naturalization cases of Indonesian and Vietnamese players, the speed of naturalization of Malaysian players is much faster.

It is unclear how FAM's technical error was repeated in 7 different cases, filed at different times, over many months? (Photo: NST).

Specifically, to be naturalized and to be able to play for the Vietnamese national team, Nguyen Xuan Son took 5 years (from the time Xuan Son first came to Vietnam and played football), players born in the Netherlands with Indonesian ancestry also had to take at least 6 months/person, before being naturalized.

On October 6, FIFA released documents proving that seven players, Rodrigo Holgado, Facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Joao Figueiredo and Jon Irazabal, had grandparents born in Spain, Argentina, the Netherlands and Brazil, and were not born in Malaysia, according to documents provided to FIFA by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

FAM has so far argued that the provision of incorrect documents was due to technical and administrative issues, and not intentional on FAM's part.

However, this argument was rejected by FIFA. FIFA said that FAM's naturalization applications to FIFA for each player were submitted at different times.

Therefore, FAM's argument about technical and administrative errors is difficult to convince FIFA on the point that, if this was a technical error, how could this technical error be repeated up to 7 different cases, at different times, over many months?

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/tiet-lo-qua-trinh-fifa-dieu-tra-cau-thu-nhap-tich-cua-malaysia-20251007144737909.htm