The football-mad nation has been rocked by the scandal that unfolded in September when Fifa found the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) guilty of falsifying ancestry documents to help the so-called “heritage” players become eligible to play for the national team.
In scathing remarks, Fifa called the breach a “pure and simple form of cheating”.
Fifa investigators found that FAM had submitted falsified documents to show the players’ grandparents were born in Penang or Malacca, when official records revealed they were born in Argentina, Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands.
On Monday night, FAM confirmed that Fifa’s appeal committee had dismissed its bid to overturn the ruling.
“FAM will write to Fifa to obtain full details and the written reasoning of the decision before taking the next step to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” the association’s acting president Mohd Yusoff Mahadi said in a statement. “This is the first time FAM has faced such a situation, and our lawyers and management are deeply shocked by the outcome.”
