The Tunku Mahkota Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, is ready to cover all expenses related to the Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) and seven heritage players’ appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after Fifa accused them of using falsified documents.
In an interview with Utusan Malaysia, the Johor Regent Ismail also stressed that he is not worried about any potential repercussions from Fifa in response to his recent public criticism of the global football body.
“I will cover everything, it’s not public money,” he said when asked if he was prepared to assist FAM and the seven players following the sanctions imposed by Fifa.
“I’m not (worried about being sanctioned by Fifa). Go ahead.”
FAM and the seven naturalised Malaysian footballers were penalised by Fifa last month after the world football body said FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the players’ eligibility before Malaysia’s 2027 Asian Cup qualifier against Vietnam on June 10.
A Fifa investigation found that falsified documents had been used to claim that each player had a grandparent born in Malaysia, although they were actually born in Spain, Argentina, Brazil and the Netherlands.
The players involved are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
FAM was fined 350,000 Swiss francs (RM1.8 million), while each player was fined 2,000 Swiss francs (RM10,560) and banned for 12 months.
Fifa on Monday dismissed FAM’s appeal and upheld the sanctions on the national body and the seven naturalised players.
FAM acting president Yusoff Mahadi said the association would write to Fifa to obtain the full written grounds for its decision before appealing to CAS
Tunku Ismail, who is Johor Regent, yesterday accused Fifa of misapplying its own rules in punishing the seven naturalised Malaysian footballers, calling the year-long suspensions “politically motivated”.
In an Instagram post, he said Article 22 of Fifa’s disciplinary code only allows punishment for those who falsify or use falsified documents, which he claimed did not apply to the players involved.
