Banned players gain small CAS win in Malaysian passport scandal

Seven players banned for falsifying documents to play for Malaysia had their punishments slightly reduced on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but the country’s football association lost its appeal.

FIFA in December banned the players from all football activities for a year and fined them each 2,000 Swiss francs (2,2006 euros or $2,564), while fining the Football Association of Malaysia 350,000 Swiss francs.

CAS ruled the players could return to “football-related activities” and “can resume training with their clubs” but the year-long ban, backdated to September, remained in place for “official matches”.

In 2025, the FAM approached Hector Hevel, Jon Irazabal, Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca and Joao Brandao Figueiredo and said they could become become international players if they became naturalised Malaysians.

FIFA started investigating after the players helped Malaysia beat Vietnam 4-0 in June 2025 in an Asian Cup qualifier.

World football’s governing body said the naturalisations were obtained “using falsified documents” and none of the players had a parent or grandparent born in Malaysia. It said five of the applications were approved on the same day, June 3.

The FAM, whose executive committee members resigned en masse at the end of January, acknowledged its responsibility for the fraud, explaining that “the players’ role was limited to providing” documents, which they had “neither prepared nor altered”.

Three of the players were originally Argentine, two Spanish, one Dutch and one Brazilian.

FIFA also converted three Malaysia friendly results last year — two of them wins — to 3-0 defeats.

A decision about Malaysia’s status in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers now needs to be taken by the Asian Football Confederation.

“This matter will now be referred to the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee,” the Kuala Lumpur-based AFC said in a statement.

AFC secretary-general Windsor Paul told Malaysia’s The Star daily paper “it is our priority to get this resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible”.