FAM Suspends Sec-Gen, Forms Independent Committee To Probe Issue Of Heritage Players

PETALING JAYA, Oct 17 (Bernama) -- The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has suspended its Secretary-General, Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, with immediate effect, regarding the disciplinary decision related to the documentation issue involving the eligibility of seven national heritage players.

FAM Deputy president FAM Datuk S. Sivasundaram said they have also established an independent body to investigate the issue that has recently rocked Malaysian football.

He said the decision to suspend Noor Azman was made to ensure transparency and allow the independent body to conduct a thorough probe without interference.

“We are appointing an independent committee just to investigate. We don’t want the secretary-general to be around, so as to ensure a transparent investigation.

“The Secretary-General is the head of the secretariat and has taken responsibility. So for the independent committee to investigate, he has to be away for some time until the investigation is completed,” he told a press conference here, today.

Also present were Harimau Malaya chief executive officer Rob Friend and FAM legal council, Serge Vittoz, an international sports lawyer from Geneva and London based law firm, Charles Russell Speechlys.

Meanwhile, Sivasundaram said the new independent committee, which will not comprise any FAM officials, will be tasked to identify what went wrong in the documentation and submission process that led to FIFA’s sanction against the seven heritage players and the national body.

He said they are still awaiting the next stage of the appeal process which was submitted to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) on Oct 14.

“FAM maintains that these players were lawfully naturalised in accordance with Malaysian law,” he said.

Last month, FAM and seven naturalised players - Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel - were penalised by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee after being found guilty of violating Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) related to document falsification.

In a statement, FIFA said FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the eligibility of the players, allowing them to compete in the third-round match of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10.

As a result, FAM was fined CHF350,000 (approximately RM1.8 million), while each player was fined CHF2,000 (about RM10,560) and suspended for 12 months from all football-related activities, effective from the date of notification of the decision.

In a previous statement, FAM explained that it had identified a technical error in the submission process involving the seven players’ documents, which was made by an administrative staff member.

FAM had also stated that it did not rule out the possibility of taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if the appeal at the FIFA level fails to yield a positive outcome.

-- BERNAMA