Fifa is not going to change Malaysia
Thursday, 20 Nov 2025 9:11 AM MYT
By Praba Ganesan
NOVEMBER 20 — When Matt Damon’s Will Hunting uses his genius to dismantle and annihilate a plagiarising graduate student at a Harvard Bar in defence of his plain construction worker friend in the Oscar winner Good Will Hunting, the outcome was never in doubt.
He’d lose.
Class always wins, in movies and in life. Upper class, I mean, the wealthy, the powerful, those who were born to win, those with stock options and lengthy titles growing longer by the decade.
The antagonist turns to Will and says that he might be a fake but later in life he’d be holidaying at a ski resort and stop by the gas stop where the negligible like the genius flip burgers.
Because social class is permanent, was his underlying message.
All the facts in the world will not turn the true order upside down, is the argument. That Orwell’s fear of the boot on all our faces forever is too late as a message. Orwell erred to think the boot is new, it’s always stomped us.
Which best describes the bitterness I swallow knowing Fifa’s castigation of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) — its visible and not so visible characters — will amount to very little in my tanah air.
There are no scenarios where the just prevail as it stands in Malaysia. But we can laugh. The only refuge for the powerless.
In Fifa’s Appeal Committee’s words, “the Committee wished to express both its surprise and disappointment with the FAM’s (Football Association of Malaysia) failure to identify the individuals responsible for the tampering, their rank, or their specific roles within the association is deeply troubling.” [Article 253, Decision of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee passed on 25 September 2025 (Ref. FDD-24394), passed on November 3, 2025.]
On October 9, 2025, I asked us to not in our zeal clobber FAM end up slamming our own heritage, history and feelings associated with football.
I was that little boy sitting in the living room with his father watching the match, Malaysia defeats South Korea to qualify for the 1980 Olympics.
A lot of me does not want to upset fans, my brothers and sisters that I share this passion with. The past, the present and the future they carry on with.
Yet our love cannot hide the madness perpetrated. The brazen acts executed without hesitation and even when caught, ignored. Absolutely certain they’d get away with it all, they’ve scratched remorse out of their lexicon.
It’s all about goals, the angles picked
A decision was made — not too long ago — to pursue better players to get better results for our national football team.
They found a friend, literally, Rob Friend to taskforce it. Only via a hearing in Miami, Florida, USA were Malaysians informed that the national team’s CEO unapologetically prefers to define himself as a consultant who flies in from 16 time-zones away in Canada for matchdays.
I’m no sports consultant but the self-description seems an apparent effort to water down his involvement in the fiasco.
Malaysia played Nepal two days ago, so he might still be at Wisma FAM today. I suppose Friend is one of those distance adherents — hellbent to sustain s physical distance from his brief in an earnest effort to maintain objectivity about his wards.
Twelve thousand kilometres via Narita or Incheon should do the trick. He might have to fly back in when Fifa visits to investigate.
He is nothing without the selfless agents who sourced these players.
They possess clairvoyance beyond The Matrix’s Oracle, or investigative nous superior to CSI Miami — that city again!
How else to explain their discovery of up to 27 professional footballers with at least a grandparent born in Malaysia, even if the players did not know about it.
They approached certain Malaysian individuals and the players, and both readily agreed with them. Why would football agents — famous mercenaries — reach out to people with money other than to sate their innate desire to make a better world?
The dominant version circulating is that these certain Malaysian individuals of impeachable qualities once approached said let’s give it a go.
No harm to see if the Home Ministry of one of the strictest countries in the world when it comes to citizenship can issue citizenships on demand. I mean, Netflix and Amazon do videos on demand, why can’t Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN) with its super friendly officers issue passports before matchday?
They were right, KDN found a way.
On October 9, 2025, that day again, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail tells Dewan Rakyat in the aftermath of the initial Fifa ruling that all parts of Article 19 of the Federal Constitution pertaining to citizenship were diligently fulfilled, when processing the seven players.
The rules, according to the minister, are the following. Applicant files own form without agents, complies with residency requirements and speaks sufficient Malay.
The players told the Fifa committee last month, in Spanish I suppose, they only signed the documents and have no knowledge of Malay. Their deposition shows they never lived in Malaysia before.
So, I went to the parliamentary Hansard and read what the minister said verbatim in Malay. The seven did not live in Malaysia, the minister used his discretion to interpret them never being in Malaysia as the same as them being in Malaysia.
The minister’s officers said they had enough Malay by just breathing in the air at the ministry, when they first visited Malaysia earlier this year.
Guttural noises or mouthwash gargling can sound like passable Malay if the evaluating officer opens his mind and listens with his heart.
The writer argues that even Fifa’s damning verdict won’t shake a system where the powerful set the rules — and rewrite the documents. — Reuters file pic
To say they had the Maggi Mee version to citizenship is being unfair to instant noodles. The minister steered the stratagem to the finishing line utilising his prerogative to bypass requirements using Section 20(1)(e) of Article 19.
KDN thought it was sorted. They were unaware that Fifa was aware that countries might buy trophies by issuing passports liberally.
Even with passports, new citizens have to establish their residency or blood ties to this new country they want to give their last full measure of devotion on a football pitch. Including diving.
Therefore, unnamed individuals in FAM altered birth certificates to prove that and filed them. FAM admitted to administrative adjustments to birth certificates.
In Cheras, when the people who issue certificates correct their certificates, it is called a reissue. When people who receive certificate copies from other people and then tamper with them, it’s called falsification and the output a forgery. But what do we simple folks in Cheras know?
Imagine our shock that Fifa also agrees with Cheras, and not FAM?
FAM generated seven fables about seven players. Found out, they still won’t out who did it or ordered FAM to do it.
It’s criminal, Fifa concluded.
The Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh responds that she’s asked the home minister, since it is his portfolio. I suppose we should limit our questions to Yeoh pertaining to Mobile Legends and the expected low medal count at the Thai Sea Games. Fraud, forgery and the public’s trust are above her paygrade.
Suckers!
The Malaysian system of government is about wearing out the rakyat. Passing the buck has been successful for 70 years, they’d like to continue the rich tradition.
They are going to pass the Malaysian public from one statement to another, one pledge to another, one portfolio to another, one explanation to another till another scandal can draw the attention.
The rakyat can leave their comments in a social media post near them till the furore dies off.
The powerful have the means, they have the large buildings, they have the men with forms and email addresses to busy us up if we stick to this intention to bother them. They have Section 20(1)(e) of Article 19, of the Federal Constitution.
The federal government does what my seven-year-old niece Maya does when she does not like the question, she ignores you.
That’s the real outcome from this. Those who are guilty, work to look guilty somewhat, to maybe “they were guilty but we forget about what” status, to giving them a service award paid for by taxpayers.
By then we’d be flipping too many burgers to read certificates let alone know they were forged.
NOVEMBER 20 — When Matt Damon’s Will Hunting uses his genius to dismantle and annihilate a plagiarising graduate student at a Harvard Bar in defence of his plain construction worker friend in the Oscar winner Good Will Hunting, the outcome was never in doubt.
He’d lose.
Class always wins, in movies and in life. Upper class, I mean, the wealthy, the powerful, those who were born to win, those with stock options and lengthy titles growing longer by the decade.
The antagonist turns to Will and says that he might be a fake but later in life he’d be holidaying at a ski resort and stop by the gas stop where the negligible like the genius flip burgers.
Because social class is permanent, was his underlying message.
All the facts in the world will not turn the true order upside down, is the argument. That Orwell’s fear of the boot on all our faces forever is too late as a message. Orwell erred to think the boot is new, it’s always stomped us.
Which best describes the bitterness I swallow knowing Fifa’s castigation of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) — its visible and not so visible characters — will amount to very little in my tanah air.
There are no scenarios where the just prevail as it stands in Malaysia. But we can laugh. The only refuge for the powerless.
In Fifa’s Appeal Committee’s words, “the Committee wished to express both its surprise and disappointment with the FAM’s (Football Association of Malaysia) failure to identify the individuals responsible for the tampering, their rank, or their specific roles within the association is deeply troubling.” [Article 253, Decision of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee passed on 25 September 2025 (Ref. FDD-24394), passed on November 3, 2025.]
On October 9, 2025, I asked us to not in our zeal clobber FAM end up slamming our own heritage, history and feelings associated with football.
I was that little boy sitting in the living room with his father watching the match, Malaysia defeats South Korea to qualify for the 1980 Olympics.
A lot of me does not want to upset fans, my brothers and sisters that I share this passion with. The past, the present and the future they carry on with.
Yet our love cannot hide the madness perpetrated. The brazen acts executed without hesitation and even when caught, ignored. Absolutely certain they’d get away with it all, they’ve scratched remorse out of their lexicon.
It’s all about goals, the angles picked
A decision was made — not too long ago — to pursue better players to get better results for our national football team.
They found a friend, literally, Rob Friend to taskforce it. Only via a hearing in Miami, Florida, USA were Malaysians informed that the national team’s CEO unapologetically prefers to define himself as a consultant who flies in from 16 time-zones away in Canada for matchdays.
I’m no sports consultant but the self-description seems an apparent effort to water down his involvement in the fiasco.
Malaysia played Nepal two days ago, so he might still be at Wisma FAM today. I suppose Friend is one of those distance adherents — hellbent to sustain s physical distance from his brief in an earnest effort to maintain objectivity about his wards.
Twelve thousand kilometres via Narita or Incheon should do the trick. He might have to fly back in when Fifa visits to investigate.
He is nothing without the selfless agents who sourced these players.
They possess clairvoyance beyond The Matrix’s Oracle, or investigative nous superior to CSI Miami — that city again!
How else to explain their discovery of up to 27 professional footballers with at least a grandparent born in Malaysia, even if the players did not know about it.
They approached certain Malaysian individuals and the players, and both readily agreed with them. Why would football agents — famous mercenaries — reach out to people with money other than to sate their innate desire to make a better world?
The dominant version circulating is that these certain Malaysian individuals of impeachable qualities once approached said let’s give it a go.
No harm to see if the Home Ministry of one of the strictest countries in the world when it comes to citizenship can issue citizenships on demand. I mean, Netflix and Amazon do videos on demand, why can’t Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN) with its super friendly officers issue passports before matchday?
They were right, KDN found a way.
On October 9, 2025, that day again, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail tells Dewan Rakyat in the aftermath of the initial Fifa ruling that all parts of Article 19 of the Federal Constitution pertaining to citizenship were diligently fulfilled, when processing the seven players.
The rules, according to the minister, are the following. Applicant files own form without agents, complies with residency requirements and speaks sufficient Malay.
The players told the Fifa committee last month, in Spanish I suppose, they only signed the documents and have no knowledge of Malay. Their deposition shows they never lived in Malaysia before.
So, I went to the parliamentary Hansard and read what the minister said verbatim in Malay. The seven did not live in Malaysia, the minister used his discretion to interpret them never being in Malaysia as the same as them being in Malaysia.
The minister’s officers said they had enough Malay by just breathing in the air at the ministry, when they first visited Malaysia earlier this year.
Guttural noises or mouthwash gargling can sound like passable Malay if the evaluating officer opens his mind and listens with his heart.
The writer argues that even Fifa’s damning verdict won’t shake a system where the powerful set the rules — and rewrite the documents. — Reuters file pic
To say they had the Maggi Mee version to citizenship is being unfair to instant noodles. The minister steered the stratagem to the finishing line utilising his prerogative to bypass requirements using Section 20(1)(e) of Article 19.
KDN thought it was sorted. They were unaware that Fifa was aware that countries might buy trophies by issuing passports liberally.
Even with passports, new citizens have to establish their residency or blood ties to this new country they want to give their last full measure of devotion on a football pitch. Including diving.
Therefore, unnamed individuals in FAM altered birth certificates to prove that and filed them. FAM admitted to administrative adjustments to birth certificates.
In Cheras, when the people who issue certificates correct their certificates, it is called a reissue. When people who receive certificate copies from other people and then tamper with them, it’s called falsification and the output a forgery. But what do we simple folks in Cheras know?
Imagine our shock that Fifa also agrees with Cheras, and not FAM?
FAM generated seven fables about seven players. Found out, they still won’t out who did it or ordered FAM to do it.
It’s criminal, Fifa concluded.
The Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh responds that she’s asked the home minister, since it is his portfolio. I suppose we should limit our questions to Yeoh pertaining to Mobile Legends and the expected low medal count at the Thai Sea Games. Fraud, forgery and the public’s trust are above her paygrade.
Suckers!
The Malaysian system of government is about wearing out the rakyat. Passing the buck has been successful for 70 years, they’d like to continue the rich tradition.
They are going to pass the Malaysian public from one statement to another, one pledge to another, one portfolio to another, one explanation to another till another scandal can draw the attention.
The rakyat can leave their comments in a social media post near them till the furore dies off.
The powerful have the means, they have the large buildings, they have the men with forms and email addresses to busy us up if we stick to this intention to bother them. They have Section 20(1)(e) of Article 19, of the Federal Constitution.
The federal government does what my seven-year-old niece Maya does when she does not like the question, she ignores you.
That’s the real outcome from this. Those who are guilty, work to look guilty somewhat, to maybe “they were guilty but we forget about what” status, to giving them a service award paid for by taxpayers.
By then we’d be flipping too many burgers to read certificates let alone know they were forged.
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