Harimau Malaya’s Secret Weapon: Grandmothers

Harimau Malaya’s Secret Weapon: Grandmothers


4 Oct 2025 • 8:00 AM MYT



Fa Abdul
FA ABDUL is a former columnist of Malaysiakini & Free Malaysia Today (FMT)

Image credit: seasia


Recently, FIFA punished the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for messing up some documents. In short, FAM got caught trying to register players who didn’t actually qualify to play for Malaysia. The mistake? Our so-called “heritage players.”


Now, what are heritage players? Simple - they’re foreign players who qualify to play for Malaysia not because they were born here, but because somewhere in their family tree, there’s a Malaysian connection. Usually through a parent or grandparent. If the paperwork checks out, FIFA allows it. If the paperwork looks like it was filled in during lunch break at a mamak stall, then… well, we get punished. Which is exactly what happened.


And this is where it gets funny. Most probably, none of these players had ever set foot in Malaysia before, yet somehow, they’re now wearing the Harimau Malaya jersey. All thanks to one magical word: grandma.


Take Gabriel Palmero. He’s 23. According to Malaysian law, if you want citizenship, you must live here for at least 10 years. Which means Gabriel should’ve been hanging out in Cheras since he was 13. But no - at 15, he was already playing in Spain for Tenisca, then moved to UD Las Palmas, and kept bouncing around clubs in Spain. Fast forward to March 2025 - suddenly, boom, he’s Malaysian!


Then comes Rodrigo Holgado. He’s 30. Same rule - should’ve been here since 20. But his career map? Argentina, Chile, Colombia. Same goes to Facundo Garcés, 26, who played for Colon in Argentina and Alaves in Spain. I can only assume it's the same for the rest.


And here’s the best part: Gabriel, Rodrigo and Facundo are “Malaysians” through their grandmothers. I love that. It’s like when someone honks at me on the road and I yell back, “Hello, this is my grandfather’s road!” Apparently, the same logic now works in football - if your grandma once had teh tarik in KL, you have a Malaysian connection. Congrats, you can play for Malaysia!


Even Wikipedia joined the fun. Gabriel’s eligibility is written as: ‘through his Malaysian grandmother of another brother beside his neighbour.’ Pure poetry. So let’s be fair and give Rodrigo / Facundo their own version: “through his grandmother of another sister whose nephew lives beside a hibiscus tree.” Makes total sense, right? If we’re already stretching it, might as well stretch until it snaps.


But then, here’s when things start to get interesting. According to a TikTok video uploaded by barber Syafiq Ahlil showing him interviewing Gabriel over a haircut, the footballer confirmed: “Yes, my grandmother is from Malaysia. However, my grandmother and I have never visited the country.”


A quick check revealed that while Malaysian law requires 10 years of residency for citizenship, according to FIFA regulations, naturalisation for national team eligibility is only valid through two official pathways: (1) Residency - the player must have lived in the country for at least five years after turning 18, or (2) Ancestry - the player must have a parent or grandparent born in the country.


Ah, so technically, the entire group of Harimau Malaya’s naturalised players who were born, raised, and had an active career in Europe or South America before they magically appeared in Malaysia before an important match could not have met the FIFA regulations via the first pathway – residency.


But wait a minute - didn’t the Home Ministry claim that the citizenship for the seven heritage players was lawful and properly processed in line with Article 19(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia? Now, how can the players meet Article 19(1) when we have one player admitting on record that he has never been to Bolehland before? Care to explain, dear Home Ministry?


Amidst all this confusion, one thing is clear - these players most probably have never resided in Malaysia. And this leaves us with only one assumption: they got here by their ancestry route. Yup, it is their grandmother connection that seems to be the issue.


Look, nobody is denying these boys can play football. They can, and they helped us beat Vietnam 4-0. But rules are rules. If FIFA says players must be those who inherit blood from their grandparents or parents, then we should stick to that. Otherwise, we might as well go scout half of La Liga, because for all we know, every striker’s got a fairy-tale grandmother from Malaysia hiding in their bedtime stories.


Since this is staining the nation’s international reputation with the severe accusations of forgery and cheating, actions must be taken - especially since the FAM had thanked PM Anwar Ibrahim by announcing that the government facilitated the documentation process for new heritage players, enabling them to feature for the team.


Now this is no longer just the reputation of FAM. This now also involves the PM, the government, and the nation’s international reputation.


While I applaud FAM’s acting president, Yusoff Mahadi, who has vowed to use “all available legal channels” to protect the national team and the integrity of the country, I look forward to FAM accepting the kind offer by Citizen Nades, a legally qualified journalist and long-time sports writer, to lead an independent, journalistic effort to publicly verify the core claim of this scandal: that the grandparents of the seven players in question were, in fact, Malaysian citizens.


The question now: will FAM take up Nades anneh’s offer?


Meanwhile, on a separate note, as we learn about the government’s generosity in assisting FAM facilitate the documentation process to enable foreigners to acquire citizenship, let’s not forget real people who’ve been living in Malaysia for 20, 30 years. They’ve built families here, learned Malay, contributed to our communities - and yet they’re still waiting for PR, let alone citizenship. If rules really matter, shouldn’t we start with the people who actually live here, instead of footballers who probably just dug up a grandma’s name from an imaginary family tree?

***

I really luv Fatimah, her sense of justice & righteousness, her humour, her writing passion, her Penang lang-ness - hey man, I think I have the 'hots' for her 😂😂😂💗💗💗