Malaysia's FIFA Ban & Citizenship Scandal: Disgraceful, Despicable, and Downright Disgusting

Zulqarnain.
Nov 8, 2025
6 min read

Bukit Jalil was alive that night. The drums, the chants, the sea of yellow and black. Ultras Malaya filled the air with fire and pride. The diehard group formed in 2007 when Malaysian football was at its all-time low following the AFC Asian Cup. Since then, they have stuck with Harimau Malaya through every heartbreak, missed penalty, and miracle goal, ‘menang atau kalah’. As Malaysia crushed Vietnam four-nil on 10 June 2025, we screamed our lungs out. For that one night, every voice shouted the same thing: “Kita Satu Malaysia”.

But the next day, everything changed when FIFA received a random complaint stating that seven of our players might not even be Malaysian. The win suddenly felt strange, like the joy we had was built on a hoax. Then the truth came crashing in on 26 September 2025, when FIFA announced its sanctions: some of the players who wore our jersey were never Malaysians by heritage. Their ancestral stories were fabricated, their documents forged. FIFA’s investigation later showed that while the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) claimed those seven players had grandparents born in Malaysia, their roots were Argentine, Brazilian, Spanish, and Dutch. The truth hit hard. That victory we shouted for, the one we were so proud of, turned out to be a fairytale built on lies. Jorge Palacio, FIFA's disciplinary committee deputy chairperson, declared the conduct "constitutes, pure and simple, a form of cheating, which cannot in any way be condoned.”

Naturalisation was never the sin; dishonesty was. While other nations built their teams with truth, ours was built on falsified paperwork and pretense. Has Malaysian citizenship become so reduced that it can be traded for goals and glory?

The Cover-Up, Exposed

The betrayal didn’t start on the field. It began quietly in an air-conditioned room, with coffee cups on the table and slides glowing on a screen. As Malaysia sank to its lowest FIFA ranking of 178 in 2018, FAM launched the Heritage Player Program. By 2025, more than twenty players had passports approved in record time, and suspicions grew when a certain royal hinted that several were already shortlisted for the national team.

Between March and June 2025, FAM submitted birth certificates for seven players: Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, João Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel, who later featured in Malaysia’s 4-0 win over Vietnam. We celebrated that night like heroes were reborn, but some of these “tigers” came from much farther than we thought.

Then FIFA checked the records. The names didn’t match, the dates were wrong, and suddenly, pride turned to shame. The government later admitted it never had the real documents, only copies. Fresh birth certificates were created from “secondary information” because the originals were missing. This wasn’t carelessness. It was forgery; deliberate, coordinated, and protected by power, until FIFA called their bluff.

Pride Without Principles

Football in Malaysia lives in our hearts. When Bukit Jalil roars, the whole country feels alive. The Harimau Malaya dominated Asian football in the 70s and 80s. Legends like Mokhtar Dahari, Hassan Sani, and James Wong carried our pride to the world, leading us to the Olympics, the Asian Games, and the Asian Cup. The film Ola Bola reminds us of the golden spirit that made us stand as one. Football was not just about victory; it was about hope, pride, and the belief that Malaysia could rise together.

But that golden age faded. In 1994, Malaysian football was rocked by one of the country's largest bribery and corruption scandals, when more than 100 players and coaches were detained for match-fixing. Many Malaysian fans have since labeled the scandal as the catalyst for the downfall of Malaysian football. With the death of mainstream interest and lack of funds, Malaysian football failed to repeat the performances of earlier decades.

Every pass, every tackle, every cheer meant something. But now, it feels like that spirit is fading. This scandal did not just ruin a match; it broke something within us. A win built on lies is not victory, it is betrayal. It taught our youth that truth no longer matters, that success can be faked. — Zulqarnain.

Back then, our players wore the jersey with pride, fighting for the country they loved. Now, a few hold all the power while young talents wait on the sidelines, forgotten. We say we want Malaysia to rise, but not like this. Because if we have to cheat to win, then we have already lost who we are.

Photo Credits: Bhong Bahala via Unsplash

When the World Stopped Believing Us

Vietnam was the first to raise the alarm, one that led to FAM being fined 350,000 Swiss francs, nearly RM1.9 million, and the seven players were each banned for a year. When FIFA released its report on October 6, the truth surfaced in its full glory, revealing falsified documents, fake names, and a betrayal that shook Malaysian football to its core.

The victory that was our proud and joy became an international embarrassment. FIFA explicitly stated this conduct "strikes at the very core of the fundamental principles of football, not only those governing a player's eligibility to represent a national team, but also the essential values of a clean sport and the principle of fair play".

Yet, the damage extends far beyond a singular match. The Nepalese football team has since requested that FIFA cancel its 2-0 loss against Malaysia from March 2025. Their justification? Malaysia had fielded a player who was not truly Malaysian and benefited from his presence on the field. If FIFA chooses to agree with Nepal, the Harimau Malaya may face far greater repercussions on its Asian Cup qualification campaign.

A Rotten System Built to Protect Its Own

Nevertheless, it’s necessary to recognise that this scandal could not have occurred if not for the powerful hands of those who know the system like the back of their hand. Forging documents and granting citizenship on a whim is not for amateurs; it’s the work of the influential elites who believe that the rules never apply to them.

This controversy did not appear out of nowhere. The Home Minister admitted to using his discretion in approving the players, claiming that birth certificates were unnecessary if they behaved well and spoke Malay. When FIFA produced the real documents, the denials began. FAM suspended its Secretary General and announced an independent committee to investigate, while insisting the issue was only a technical error. The press conference offered no clarity, only deflection, a familiar pattern in Malaysian football where accountability often turns into procedure.

The Double Standard: Stateless Citizens, Pretender Footballers

What stings most is not the fraud itself but the hypocrisy that came with it. Seven foreign-born players applied for Malaysian citizenship in January and were holding ICs by May. Yet, an estimated 290,000 stateless people across Malaysia still wait in silence for recognition. Their files sit in drawers collecting dust, their names forgotten, their lives on pause. They know no other home, yet the system treats them like outsiders. For them, nothing moves. It is as if they do not exist.

We call it national pride when foreign players are fast-tracked to win us matches, yet we ignore the stateless children who sing Negaraku every morning without belonging to the country they love. — Zulqarnain.

The Home Minister says he is open to tracing the players’ Malaysian roots, but what about the families who have traced theirs for generations? They get forms, rejections, and silence. A man can play football for five years and become Malaysian, while someone born here may only receive a blue IC when their hair turns grey.

This scandal proves the government can act fast; it simply chooses not to when it comes to real Malaysians. We prioritise medals over humanity, fake glory over justice. In a country so desperate to win, citizenship is no longer earned by loyalty or belonging, only by usefulness.

Burn Everything That Lies

There is no excuse left. This was not an accident. It was a masterpiece of fraud, with documents forged, systems bent, and passports granted faster than any ordinary Malaysian could ever dream of. And for what? A few goals, a higher ranking, a little glory to feed the egos of those sitting too comfortably above the rules. While real Malaysians wait years for citizenship, some managed to skip the line with a royal nod and a minister’s blessing.

FAM calls it a technical error. The ministries call it discretion. Everyone smiles, apologises, and promises to investigate themselves. Meanwhile, a child in Sabah still has no documentation, and families still wait for answers that never come. Efficiency, it seems, is a privilege reserved for the chosen few.

If a flag has to cover a lie, it is not a flag, it is a curtain. So we stop clapping. We ask for names, dates, documents. We demand an independent investigation, public records, resignations, prosecutions. No more Malaysia Boleh unless it is Malaysia Betul. — Zulqarnain.