World football governing body FIFA on Monday announced it has dismissed the Football Association of Malaysia's appeals over the "forgery and falsification" saga -- and has upheld the punishments it originally handed down last month.
Malaysian football was thrown into disarray at the end of September when FIFA ruled they had breached Article 22 of their disciplinary code, pertaining to "having used forged and/or falsified documents in FIFA proceedings".
These allegedly-fake documents, which were originally used as evidence that seven overseas-born players had grandparents of Malaysian heritage, and subsequently aided the process to gain them citizenship.
The players -- Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, João Figueiredo, Hector Hevel and Jon Irazábal -- were all granted eligibility to represent Malaysia at various points between March and June, and the septet all featured in a 4-0 win over Vietnam in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.
However, a formal complaint was lodged a day later which led to an opening of investigations by the secretariat of FIFA's disciplinary committee.
Upon the conclusion of the investigation, where FIFA announced that the offences had taken place, the FAM exercised its right to request for a detailed report which was then published on Oct. 6 -- where the "doctored" and "original" birthplaces of these players' grandparents were revealed in detail.
The FAM immediately expressed its intent to appeal, which has now led to Monday's ruling.
In their official statement, FIFA declared: "After analysing the submissions and conducting a hearing, the Appeal Committee decided to dismiss the appeals, and to confirm in its entirety the ... sanctions imposed upon FAM and the seven players."
These are as follows:
A fine of 350,000 Swiss francs imposed on FAM.
A fine of 2,000 Swiss francs and a 12-month suspension from all football-related activities imposed on the seven players in question.
The FIFA statement also noted that, upon Monday's notice, FAM and the players now have ten days to request a "motivated decision", which would then be followed by a 21-day period for a possible appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Following the result of their unsuccessful appeal, FAM issued a reponse and confirmed its intentions to take the case to CAS -- even expressing surprise at the outcome.
"The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has received the appeal decision from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), where our appeal has been rejected," read the statement, which was signed off by acting president Yusoff Mahadi.
"FAM will write to FIFA to obtain full details and written reasons for the decision before taking the next step to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"This is the first time FAM has faced a situation like this, and our lawyers and management are very surprised by the decision. However, FAM will continue to firmly fight for the rights of the players and the interests of Malaysian football at the international level."