Why did 7 foreign players risk becoming Malaysian citizens?

Hector Hevel, one of seven naturalized players banned by FIFA, revealed the reason why he agreed to play for the Malaysian national team.

Hector Hevel was born in the Netherlands and there is no documentation to prove his grandparents were born in Malaysia.

On his personal page, Hector Hevel revealed: "Many foreign players agree to wear the Malaysian national team's shirt because of the opportunity to join Johor Darul Ta'zim Club (JDT), one of the top teams in Asia."

"I trained with JDT for a while before becoming a Malaysian citizen and felt this was a good opportunity for me," he admitted.

Hector Hevel is one of the cases identified by FIFA for using fake documents. Many fans can even easily find Hevel's family background on the Dutch government 's archive website.

This player's grandparents were born in The Hague (Netherlands), not in Malaysia, as FIFA alleged. The question is, Hevel and six other players knew their family background, but why did they still risk cooperating with FAM?

Hevel, Irazabal and Figueiredo were all revealed to have given up the opportunity to play in Europe to join JDT with attractive salaries and bonuses.

Prince Tunku Ismail Idris of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is believed to be behind Malaysia's fraudulent naturalization policy.

According to The Star , the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (TMJ), a powerful figure with profound influence on the naturalization program and owner of JDT, agreed to pay millions of dollars in bribes to bring these players to Malaysia.

Those who accept to play for JDT will receive attractive salaries, something they cannot have when playing for average teams in Europe.

This is also the strategy that Indonesian billionaire Thohir used to naturalize stars from the Netherlands. According to Bola , each player naturalized in Indonesia in the period 2022-2024 will receive at least 1 million USD each. More famous players can receive up to 3-5 million USD in signing-on fees.

Source: https://znews.vn/vi-sao-7-cau-thu-ngoai-mao-hiem-nhap-tich-malaysia-post1591658.html