Malaysia’s football governing body on Thursday reinstated its secretary general Noor Azman Rahman with immediate effect, after finding that he had no role in the forgery of documents used to enable seven foreign-born players to represent the country.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was plunged into an embarrassing crisis in September after Fifa, the sport’s global ruling body, ruled that FAM had submitted forged documents to claim Malaysian ancestry for seven “heritage” players of the national team.
Noor Azman was later suspended in October to make way for an investigation by an independent committee into a “technical error”, which led to a 12-month football ban on the players involved.
The seven players – Hector Hevel, Jon Irazabal, Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca and Joao Brandao Figueiredo – along with FAM were also fined a total of US$440,000 for the offence.
The FAM on Thursday said its disciplinary committee ruled that Noor Azman was not guilty of forgery based on the findings of an independent investigation committee, which was made public last month.
“The latest decision shows that Datuk Noor Azman was only negligent and was not guilty of or involved in the forgery of the documents,” the FAM said in a statement, using Noor Azman’s honorific.
