KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 9): Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution said on Thursday that the seven foreign-born football players accused by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) of faking Malaysian ancestry were naturalised legally, in full compliance with Malaysian law.

Speaking at a press conference at the Dewan Rakyat, Saifuddin said that naturalisation rules require three conditions to be met: the applicant must have lived in Malaysia for the required period and intend to stay permanently, be of good character, and possess adequate knowledge of the Malay language.

He said that he had invoked discretionary powers as provided for under the Federal Constitution for him to exempt the players from fulfilling the residency requirement.

The section provides that absence from Malaysia for any reason approved or prescribed by the minister — whether generally or specifically — is still counted as residence in the country.

“The players are of good character, have passed security screening, and possess sufficient knowledge of the Malay language. All of them have complied with the requirements,” Saifuddin said.

He also denied that the National Registration Department (NRD) falsified documents for the seven foreign-born players representing the national football team.

Saifuddin said Fifa's decision against the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was strictly between the two bodies.

“When Fifa said there was document falsification, it did not refer to our documents. We only produced one document — the birth certificate — and the law allows us to carry out re-registration,” Saifuddin said at a press conference here.

The home minister was responding to Fifa’s recent ruling, which found that FAM had submitted forged birth certificates to falsely establish that the players' grandparents were born in Malaysia — a requirement under Fifa’s “grandfather rule” for national team eligibility.

They ascertained this by obtaining the original birth certificates of the players' grandparents whose birth place did not tally with the certificates provided by FAM. 

Fifa fined FAM 350,000 Swiss francs (about RM1.8 million) and suspended each of the seven players for 12 months from all football-related activities. The affected players are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garcés, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, João Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Héctor Hevel.

Fifa started investigating the seven players after a complaint on June 11, 2025, about their eligibility in the Malaysia vs Vietnam match.

FAM has since stated that the document issue stemmed from an administrative error, where a staff member mistakenly submitted documents from a player’s agent rather than official NRD-issued copies. An official appeal is underway using verified documents.

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