Where’s Hero Akmal When FIFA Insults Malays Special Rights?
November 22nd, 2025 by financetwitter
Caught with his pants down lying through his teeth, disgraced Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution is nowhere to be found. Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, meanwhile, has proven to be a quick learner in “tai-chi”, arguing that she does not have the power to sack officials of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) over a document forgery scandal, or has the authority to interfere in any investigations.
It appears that while the Home Minister has “unlimited power” to grant citizenship to seven foreign-born footballers – glorified as heritage players – to the extent of either fabricating or assisting in falsifying birth certificates, the Sports Minister has zero power over the FAM. In short, the Home Minister can do anything, including breaking the law, but the Sports Minister can do absolutely nothing.
The hilarious contradictions in the Madani government are breathtaking. While a former Malaysian judge, Hamid Sultan Abu Backer, and Johor regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim have accused FIFA of exceeding its authority by declaring Malaysian government-issued documents fake, Hannah said FIFA has full authority and any government interference in the national football body could trigger a FIFA suspension.
Can they make up their mind whether FIFA has full authority and jurisdiction over FAM or not? If FIFA does not have the authority to question Saifuddin’s discretionary power in issuing birth documents (although they were fake), then why is Hannah so terrified of FIFA? On the other hand, if FIFA has full jurisdiction, then FAM and Saifuddin were partners in crime and Hannah should not play dumb and pretends to seek updates from Saifuddin.
Crucially, if the Malaysian government cannot interfere in the national football body because it was supposed to operate independently as claimed by Hannah Yeoh, does that mean the FAM is so “powerful” that it could engage in dubious business such as corruption, forgery or other types of crimes? In the same breath, why should taxpayers’ hard-earned money be spent to fund the FAM?
And if even the Malaysian government does not have any authority to sack officials of the Football Association of Malaysia, then who does? Based on Hannah’s argument, it appears FIFA has the power to do so. Unless the FAM is untouchable, surely someone has the jurisdiction and authority to act against officials of FAM who have committed crimes like forgery or corruption, no?
Backdoor minister Saifuddin is now trapped with his own lies after FIFA’s appeal committee released its 64-page report, which among other things revealed how the seven suspended “heritage” footballers had told the FIFA that they do not speak Bahasa Malaysia, despitethe Home Minister’s initial claim that they passed the requisite national language test for their citizenship application.
As everyone tries to save their own skin, not only the seven naturalized Malaysian players banned by FIFA might sue the FAM, they have denied involvement in document forgery but admitted to a lack of supervision and acknowledgement, claiming they were unaware of their lineage and signed legal documents without reading them – an excuse which the FIFA Appeal Committee (FAC) rejected.
In summary, the 64-page ruling released by the FAC on November 18, following 12 days of hearings for the players in the U.S., has found that all the seven players – born in Spain, Argentina, or Brazil – have claimed that they did not review the documents when they gave them to their agents. Worse, they also did not ask their agents again after learning about the falsified documents and related sanctions from FIFA.
The players said they trusted their agents, did not know what happened, insisted they had submitted original documents and denied any involvement in the falsification, blaming the cheating case entirely on FAM. The players admitted to signing the citizenship application documents and appearing before the Malaysian authorities, but denied having read or understood the contents of the documents that they had signed.
However, the Appeal Committee rejected the narrative that they were “passive victims of an orchestrated scheme”. It said – “A reasonable professional player would have questioned how they could represent a country with which they had no genuine connection. The Appeal Committee finds that the idea they could play for Malaysia without asking a single question defies logic and professional responsibility,”
The players are seasoned professionals with international careers, and not minor parties unfamiliar with contractual obligations. “Their conduct – signing without reading, failing to verify, and blatantly ignoring their responsibility for processes that affected their careers to a significant degree – falls far below the standard of care expected in international football and amounts to a situation of recklessness beyond repair,” – it said.
It’s not rocket science that either all the seven naturalized players were incredibly stupid for not understanding what they had signed, or pretending to be stupid after caught with their pants down and banned by FIFA. But the FAC isn’t stupid. It found no evidence that the players’ grandparents were born in Malaysia, simply because all the seven players were unable to prove it.
The seven are: Spain-born Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomas Garces and Jon Irazabal Iraurgui; Netherlands-born Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano; Argentina-born Rodrigo Julian Holgado and Imanol Javier Machuca; and Brazil-born Joao Vitor Brandao Figueiredo. Even after the forgery was exposed, the despicable FAM still insisted it was merely an “administrative error”.
Despite FAM’s laughable excuse, FIFA’s Appeal Committee has revealed a deliberate and coordinated cheating and forgery – FAM handled all procedures to secure Malaysian nationality for the players, birth certificates of their grandparents were altered to show Malaysian details, and FAM knowingly submitted the falsified documents to FIFA, benefiting from player eligibility approvals.
The best part is some suspended “heritage” footballers’ Malaysian passport application was approved on the same day that they submitted their forms – suggesting a systematic plan by the FAM, National Registration Department (NRD), and Home Ministry to cheat from the beginning. But exposing the falsification of documents that enabled seven foreign-born players to play for the national team was just the appetizer.
Apart from the FIFA fine of 350,000 Swiss francs (RM1.8 million), there is another major investigation against the association. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general-secretary Windsor Paul John said FAM will be investigated by FIFA over how the forged documents were submitted, who handled them and the systemic lapses.
“This part has not even started. What you see now is the disciplinary case. The other case starts only when FIFA begins its investigation. The first case is about the matches. The second is about responsibility,” – said Windsor. FIFA investigators are expected to grill senior FAM officials, including acting president Yusoff Mahadi and other key figures once the second phase of the process officially begins.
FIFA also slammed FAM’s suspension of its secretary-general Noor Azman Rahman in October amid the controversy, calling the move “primarily a public relations exercise” as Noor Azman continued to appear at high-profile events, such as at an event last month attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who visited Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.
FIFA’s secretariat has also been instructed to notify the competent criminal authorities in Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands and Spain – where the seven players were born – as well as Malaysia so that “appropriate criminal investigations and proceedings may be pursued”. Even if the Malaysian government tries to cover up, it’s hard for the Brazilian, Argentine, Holland and Spanish governments to also do the same.
With Saifuddin now in hiding in his closet, his boss – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim – has no choice but to finally open his mouth about the shameful national scandal. Anwarhas vowed that there will be no cover-up in the probe. As usual, the forked-tongue premier also said that his government was not disputing FIFA’s credibility, but that authorities in Malaysia would not act “purely based on FIFA’s findings”.
Anwar should stop insulting people’s intelligence. Saifuddin, his biggest apple polisher, had earlier tried to cover-up the scandal with lies that the seven players had passed with flying colours in the Bahasa Malaysia test. Besides, if it was true that he was not disputing FIFA’s credibility, then his government should accept the FIFA’s findings that the FAM had deliberately committed a serious crime called “forgery”.
To say Malaysia was not disputing FIFA’s credibility, yet would not act based on FIFA’s findings is both contradicting and conflicting, not to mention speaks volumes about Anwar government’s arrogance and cover-up attempts. Exactly what the prime minister plans to do with his bootlicker Saifuddin for granting dual-citizenship to the seven naturalized players, and for lying about their Malay language proficiency?
Yes, there is one Malay hero who has been missing since the saga started weeks ago. Where is Akmal Saleh, the greatest defender and champion of Malay special rights when we need him the most? FIFA’s sanction and fine on the seven players and FAM were arguably an attack on not only “Tanah Melayu” and “Ketuanan Melayu” (Malay supremacy), but also an insult on Malay privileges and the monarchy.
From the top leadership of FAM to the Director General of NRD, and from Home Minister Saifuddin to Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail, they are all Malays with special privileges. Who the hell is FIFA to punish, let alone to lecture FAM on what it can and cannot do? Even if documents had been doctored or fabricated, that was within the special rights of the Malays.
UMNO Youth Chief Akmal should threaten FIFA with his infamous samurai sword, the same way he had previously threatened the minority ethnic Chinese with the Japanese sword when he called for a nationwide boycott of KK Mart over a sock incident. Or does “village champion” Akmal only know how to bully Chinese community, but has no balls to confront an international institution like FIFA?
Akmal, the big talker who had threatened to organize a mega rally to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Malaysia, only to chicken out and allowed pro-Israel Trump to dance on “Tanah Melayu”, should at least defend the Malay language by demanding Saifuddin to explain why seven foreigners who can’t speak Bahasa Malaysia were granted citizenship so easily and so quickly.
Hilariously, not a single Malay champion from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has defended the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) or the Malay Ruler despite condemnation from “kafir” FIFA. In fact, Akmal and UMNO should organise a mega rally to protest FIFA’s interference in the internal affairs of FAM. It’s an insult to the Malay dignity that Akmal is as quiet as a church mouse.
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Hannah Yeoh is NOT scared of FIFA but is of the velle BIG MOUNTAIN behind FAM. Nothing terrifies a manja-sayang pollie like Hannah than meddling around with the 3R's sacred cow.
Akmal prefers to threaten the minority Malaysian Chinese (not China's Chinese).
