HERITAGE PLAYERS ISSUE: AFC FACES TIME CONSTRAINT ON POSSIBLE DISCIPLINARY REVIEW ON FAM

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has acknowledged that it faces a time constraint before beginning a potential disciplinary review on Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) over documentation issues involving seven Harimau Malaya heritage players.

AFC secretary general Datuk Seri Windsor John said the confederation hopes all legal and appeal processes undertaken by FAM will be completed before March 31 next year to avoid disruption to preparations for the 2027 Asian Cup final round draw.

“For us, we have a time constraint because our draw will take place after the Asian Cup’s (qualifying round) last match, which is on the 31st of March. After the last match, we will start preparing for the draw.

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“So for the draw, we need the team from Malaysia’s group, which team is going to qualify. So that’s why we need to finish everything by March 31, hopefully,” he said after a session with media here, today.

The national team, led by head coach Peter Cklamovski, currently leads Group F of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying round with a perfect record, having won all four matches, including crushing nearest rivals Vietnam 4-0 here in June.

Malaysia top the group with 12 points, followed by Vietnam (9 points), Laos (3 points) and Nepal at the bottom with no points.

Only the group winners will qualify for the finals in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to be held in January 2027.

Windsor said AFC will only begin its disciplinary review through the disciplinary committee once the final decision is received from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“After the final decision, whether from FIFA’s Appeal Committee or CAS, we will take that as the definitive ruling. It all depends on FAM’s appeal process.

“So after that, the case file will be given to AFC to look at and then take action accordingly in the context of the consequence of the decision of FIFA how it’s going to impact AFC matches, so that is how the disciplinary committee will then look at the case file and then see what are the areas that have been breached,” he said.

Last month, FAM and seven heritage players - Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel - were penalised by FIFA's Disciplinary Committee after being found guilty of violating Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) related to document falsification.

In its previous statement, FIFA said FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the eligibility of the players, allowing them to compete in the third-round match of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10.

As a result, FAM was fined CHF350,000 (about RM1.8 million), while each player was fined CHF2,000 (about RM10,560) and suspended for 12 months from all football-related activities, effective from the date of notification of the decision.

FAM, in a previous statement, explained that it had identified a technical error in the submission process involving the seven players’ documents, which was made by an administrative staff member.

On Oct 15, FAM filed an official appeal with FIFA regarding the aforementioned issue.

FAM also did not rule out the possibility of taking the matter to the CAS if the appeal at the FIFA level fails to yield a positive outcome.

FIFA is expected to announce its appeal verdict today.

-- BERNAMA