Opinion | Who is Going to Take the Fall for the FAM Football Debacle?
16 Oct 2025 • 4:00 PM MYT
TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher
Image credit: Malay Mail / Bernama
Somebody’s head is likely going to roll for the national disgrace our football team has brought upon the country — but the question is, whose?
The fiasco is far too big for us to do the “Malaysian thing” and simply “close one eye.” FIFA, the world’s football governing body, has described what our national team did as “pure and simple, a form of cheating.” That’s not a phrase that gets thrown around lightly.
For context — nine out of eleven players in our national football team were “naturalised” Malaysians. These are individuals who, if you met them, would probably appear to you as foreign visitors rather than national representatives. Out of those nine, FIFA has now determined that seven were not Malaysians at all. Instead, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) allegedly submitted forged and falsified documents to make them appear Malaysian — so they could wear our national colours and win us victories that were never truly ours.
FAM, as expected, is contesting FIFA’s verdict and insists it has done nothing wrong. But what else can it say? Admitting guilt would mean acknowledging a level of disgrace so deep that it would have to, in a sense, decimate itself.
For clarity — the word decimation comes from Ancient Rome, where every tenth soldier in a disgraced legion was executed as punishment for collective failure. If FIFA is correct, and our footballing conduct has indeed been that disgraceful, the Malaysian equivalent might well be due.
FAM’s Slim Chances of Redemption
FAM says it will appeal FIFA’s decision. But from all indications, their chances of success are close to zero.
For one, just look at the names involved: Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
These are not Malaysian names — and neither do these players look, sound, or live like Malaysians. Five of them — Figueiredo, Holgado, Irazabal, Garces, and Machuca — were cleared to represent Malaysia just hours before our match against Vietnam on June 10.
FAM calls it a “technical error.” FIFA, however, spent over 6,000 words detailing how it confirmed its ruling — hardly the work of a body that thinks this is a mere paperwork error. FIFA even tracked down the players’ grandparents in their respective countries and found no trace of Malaysian ancestry anywhere:
- Gabriel Arrocha’s grandmother – Spain
- Facundo Garcés’s grandfather – Argentina
- Rodrigo Holgado’s grandfather – Buenos Aires
- Imanol Machuca’s grandmother – Roldan
- João Figueiredo’s grandfather – Brazil
- Jon Irazabal’s grandfather – Spain
- Hector Hevel Serrano’s grandfather – The Hague, Netherlands
In short, FIFA cross-checked civil registries across multiple nations and found zero verified Malaysian heritage.
FAM’s appeal, therefore, looks less like a genuine fight for truth and more like an attempt to buy time — to figure out who will be thrown under the bus when the reckoning arrives.
The Blame Game Has Begun
That reckoning is already underway. One of the person who has a good chance of being placed at the front of the firing squad is National coach Peter Cklamovski, but if the expectation is that Peter will quietly accept his fate, that seems unlikely. The Australian has already gone public — ridiculing FAM and shifting blame squarely onto the association.
Other than condemn FAM, Peter also has showered praises on Tunku Ismail Ibrahim’s, or more popularly known as TMJ, the crown prince of Johor and the owner and driving force behind the football club JDT.
After leading Malaysia to a 3-0 win against Laos in Vientiane, he said bluntly that the “mess” that led to FIFA’s sanctions was FAM’s doing, not Tunku Ismail Ibrahim’s.
He went further, revealing that Tunku Ismail, the Regent of Johor and the driving force behind Malaysian football’s revival, was the one who secured government funding from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim — RM15 million in taxpayer money under Budget 2025, with another RM15 million expected from the private sector. Whether football will continue receiving such generous allocations in Budget 2026, which will be tabled this evening, remains to be seen.
Cklamovski praised TMJ in glowing terms:
“Without TMJ, Malaysian football would have been finished a long time ago.”
He also contrasted Laos’s pitch conditions favourably to those in Malaysia — saying the fields in the Malaysian Super League were worse. That’s a brutal indictment from the national coach himself.
Cklamovski then turned his guns fully on FAM:
“All the mess with FIFA, the administrative errors – that’s FAM, not TMJ. Without TMJ, Malaysian football is finished.”
He also thanked Malaysian fans and the Ultras for standing by the team and insisted the players were committed, disciplined, and proud to represent the country — even as chaos swirls around them.
Who Will Fall?
So, if not the coach — then who?
Will it be the FAM President, Datuk Joehari Ayub? Someone within the Sports Ministry? Or will FAM itself have to take collective responsibility?
Right now, everyone’s pointing fingers, but sooner or later, someone will have to take the fall. The FIFA sanctions are severe — a CHF350,000 fine for FAM, and 12-month suspensions for the seven ineligible players.
The reputational damage, however, is far greater than the monetary penalty. Our national image — our pride — has taken a blow that will not be forgotten soon.
And as Malaysia prepares to host Laos in Bukit Jalil on October 14, the question hangs heavy in the air:
Who will be the sacrificial goat for this national humiliation?
Because whether it’s a coach, a president, or an entire institution — someone will have to pay for the sins of this “pure and simple” act of footballing fraud.
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No one - Mountain behind FAM is just TOO BIG very BIG - matter will be allowed to die away
