Jakarta, hitclubapk3 Indonesia
—
Seven
naturalized player
Malaysian national team
has the potential to be ‘banned’ from defending the Harimau Malaya squad forever.
The chances of Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Jon Irazabal, Joao Figueiredo and Imanol Machuca wearing the Malaysian national team uniform may be closed for life.
Sports lawyer Nik Erman Nik Roseli mentioned the future of the seven players born in Europe and South America in the Harimau Malaya team.
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“In order to represent Malaysia, a player must live in the country for five years. Based on Article 6(5) of the FIFA Statutes, this means staying in Malaysia for at least 183 days a year for each of those five years,” said Nik Erman, quoted from
Daily News.
Thus, these seven people have to go through a process similar to naturalized players who go through the non-heredity route, namely living and playing in Malaysia for five full years before being eligible again.
To fulfill these requirements, the question arises about local Malaysian clubs being able to sign these seven players.
Currently only Irazabal, Figueiredo and Hevel are playing in Malaysia with Johor Darul Ta’zim.
The seven players are currently banned from playing for 12 months, in accordance with FIFA’s sanctions released at the end of September.
If the seven players fail to win their appeal at CAS, they will only be able to play next season.Meanwhile, to fulfill the five-year requirement, the player’s age is a problem.
At least in the next six years, the players will enter the age of three.Only Palmero is still 29 years old.
“Most of the [Malaysian] Super League clubs will not sign them because of financial constraints. There are not many rich teams left in this league,” said the player’s agent Effendi Jagan Abdullah.
“Some, like Holgado, who is now 30, will be 36 after a five-year naturalization process, and he will not be ideal for international football. One or two may attract offers, but that depends on the financial conditions of each club,” he continued.
At the end of September 2025, FIFA issued fines against the Malaysian Football Association and the seven players because of fake birth documents from grandparents which were used as the basis for naturalization based on lineage.
FAM has submitted an appeal to FIFA, but the world football body rejected FAM’s appeal.Next, FAM plans to take this case to CAS.
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(nva/abs)
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