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The Malaysian Football Association (FAM) has announced it will contest FIFA's ruling to sanction the body for supposedly falsifying the nationality papers of multiple overseas-born players, who have now been suspended from representing the national team for one year.

The Global Football Body's Claims and Penalties

In September, FIFA levied a penalty of over four hundred thousand dollars on FAM and banned the players after finding that their grandparents were not born in Malaysia as claimed, but rather in Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands and Spain. The international football authority restated its claims about falsified papers in a disciplinary committee report published on Monday.

Each of the individuals – who all participated in Malaysia's 4-0 win over the Vietnamese team in the qualifying match for the 2027 Asian Cup this summer – was also fined $2,500.

The accused group includes Spanish-born Arrocha, Facundo Tomas Garces and Iraurgui, born in Argentina Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Machuca, as well as Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano who was born in the Netherlands, and Figueiredo who was born Brazil.

FIFA's Stance on Forgery

"Forgery constitutes, pure and simple, a type of cheating," stated FIFA in its report.

"The act of forgery strikes at the heart of the basic tenets of football, not only those governing a player’s eligibility to represent a country's squad, but also the essential values of a clean sport and the principle of sportsmanship," commented Jorge Palacio, deputy chairperson of FIFA's disciplinary committee.

The Association's Response and Challenge Strategy

The international body's document claims that the Malaysian association conceded it "was contacted by external agencies regarding the athletes' ancestry and failed to personally confirm the validity of the papers."

"Initial documentation showed a stark difference to the submitted papers," it noted.

The organization also said it was "managed to acquire the relevant original documents easily," which revealed a "failure in due diligence" by the Malaysian body.

FAM reacted to FIFA's allegations in a statement on the following day, asserting the inconsistencies were the result of an "administrative error" and the individuals are "legitimate Malaysian citizens."

"Claims that players 'obtained or were aware of fake documents' are unfounded as no concrete proof has been presented to date," the announcement declared.

The association will submit an official appeal of FIFA's decision, using original documents that have been certified by the Malaysian government.

Regional Background and Official Responses

Southeast Asian countries have recently pursued recruitment drives for naturalised players, inspired by the Indonesian approach of recruiting Dutch-born footballers from the Indonesian diaspora.

Malaysia's minister for sports, the official, stated in a statement that "FAM needs to complete the challenge procedure and that they should not stay quiet but have to answer plainly to all revelations made by the global authority."

"Supporters are angry, disappointed and disappointed," she added.

Present Situation and Upcoming Games

Regardless of uncertainty surrounding the squad's composition, the team is now placed 123rd in FIFA's AFC ranking and is scheduled to play in qualifying matches for the Asian Cup in the coming weeks, meeting the Laotian team on Thursday.