From Ibrahim M Ahmad
Whether or not it chooses to admit it, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is in deep trouble. This is the kind of trouble no press conference, however polished, can talk its way out of. (By the way, the last one bombed terribly!)
To put it plainly, FAM is staring at the distinct possibility of being on the wrong end of damaging legal action from the seven suspended players and the clubs they belong to.
On Monday, Fifa, the global football governing body, confirmed it was upholding the suspension of seven naturalised footballers for 12 months over the use of falsified documents to establish their eligibility to represent Malaysia.
The implications are grave.
Gabriel Arrocha (of Unionistas CF, in Spain; age: 23), Facundo Garces (Deportivo Alaves, Spain; 26), Rodrigo Holgado (America de Cali, Colombia; 30), and Imanol Machuca (Velez Sarsfield, Argentina; 25) were active professionals plying their trade abroad.
Their suspension has rendered them ineligible to play, depriving their blameless clubs of their services for an entire calendar year.
Likewise, Joao Figueiredo (29), Jon Irazabal (28), and Hector Hevel (29), expecting to represent JDT, now cannot play at all.
Throughout the proceedings, FAM has insisted that the players were unaware of the document falsification, and did not participate in it.
That should leave the blame firmly on FAM’s lap, but curiously, the national body is also claiming institutional innocence.
FAM has sought to project that position in at least two ways: one, by suspending its general secretary, and two, by forming an independent investigating committee to inquire into how the falsification took place.
To the discerning fan in the street, however, those steps look like nothing more than a smokescreen.
Fifa’s own findings appear unequivocal. FAM submitted or relied on falsified birth certificates to justify the players’ eligibility as “heritage players”. The documents had falsely claimed that one grandparent of each player was born in Malaysia.
However, an investigative report tendered during the disciplinary proceedings and referred to in the disciplinary committee’s decision dated Oct 6, claimed that its secretariat “was able to gather a copy of the original birth certificates in question” which revealed that all seven grandparents were born on foreign soil.
On top of that, Argentine media outlet Capital de Noticias recently published what it claimed was the official birth record of Carlos Rogelia Fernandez — Garcés’s grandfather. The document states Fernandez was born, not in Melaka per FAM’s documentation, but in Santa Fe, Argentina, some 16,000km away.
In an apparent doubling down on its position, FAM has now announced an intention to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). That is its right, but a flawed case poorly presented risks compounding the damage.
FAM will be accused either of having acted deliberately or negligently, resulting in the players being suspended and their clubs deprived of their services.
If proven, legal consequences are bound to follow, leaving FAM exposed.
That exposure is neither hypothetical nor nominal.
For a professional footballer, a 12-month suspension is a career-altering penalty. It halts income, diminishes market value, disrupts long-term prospects, and may take a personal toll on the player.
That means there is every chance the affected players will sue FAM for the disruption to their career, loss of earnings, reputational harm, mental damage, legal and other expenses incurred, and all other forms of loss and damage available in the forum of their choice.
The affected clubs are also likely to seek recovery for all losses and damages incurred from being unjustly deprived of their players’ services.
Even the affected grandparents may have a cause of action against our once admired national footballing body!
The jurisdictions in which these lawsuits are brought also matter. Fifa’s headquarters are in Zurich, and several players are of European origin and based there.
If brought in the European courts, damages are likely to be substantial, real and fully enforceable. The legal systems in South America are less known, and may bring more shocks.
In short, FAM’s financial exposure could be significant.
The shame that follows is likely to be limitless.
Ibrahim M Ahmad is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
