Malaysia's top lawyer: FAM has almost no hope of winning FIFA's appeal against fraudulent naturalization

Mr. Nik Erman Nik Roseli (small photo) is very pessimistic about the national federation.

The key point here, according to this lawyer, is that FAM is misunderstanding the issue, which makes them still cling to the hope of turning the tables despite the agency's very weak evidence. Because FIFA does not care about the naturalization procedures of any country. What they need is whether the player meets the naturalization criteria set by FIFA or not.

“According to FIFA’s rules, unintentional acts and ignorance of the rules and subsequent wrongdoing constitute a violation,” said Nik Erman Nik Roseli. “The fact that FAM or the players knew that the documents were falsified is not legally relevant. Their criminal conduct here lies in the fact that the agency and the seven players submitted the documents to FIFA. There is no way that FAM can justify themselves by saying ‘we didn’t know’ or ‘we didn’t do it on purpose’.”

"FAM still has the independent responsibility to ensure that the players are eligible to play for the national team. FAM cannot delegate the responsibility to the National Registration Department (NRD, which is responsible for processing Malaysia's naturalisation applications). The issue is not whether they are Malaysian citizens under the country's laws.

FIFA is not concerned with how NRD granted citizenship. They are questioning the qualifications of these seven players under FIFA rules. Even if the players can prove their Malaysian origin through submitting additional documents, FIFA can still reject it. They are only concerned with the forged documents that were initially submitted.”

The 7 players accused of falsifying Malaysian naturalization documents are Facundo Garces, Hector Hevel, Gabriel Palmero, Rodrigo Holgado, Machuca, John Irazábal and Joao Figueiredo. Mr. Nik Erman Nik Roseli questioned FAM's way of working, asking why FIFA was able to obtain the original birth certificates of these players while FAM and NRD were not able to?

“The biggest question on everyone’s mind is how did FIFA get the documents and NRD and FAM did not?” he said. “FAM must provide a detailed and credible defence of FIFA’s findings, rather than general statements of administrative errors. It can only be said that in this case, diligence was not enough.”