R Nadeswaran
Published: Oct 14, 2025 3:37 PM
Updated: 6:37 PM
COMMENT | The country is in the midst of a national trial. Not in courtrooms, but in coffee shops, clubs, bars, and homes. No judges, no lawyers - just the public trying to make sense of one of the most bizarre football scandals in history.
When it comes to the court of public opinion, formalities, decorum, and niceties are dispensed, and bold facts gleaned from various sources are presented to back or rebut claims.
At the centre of this storm is the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), but the indictment goes far beyond.
It implicates government systems, civil servants, and the very machinery of governance that allowed this fiasco to unfold.
The evidence is scattered across media reports, damage-control statements, unsolicited outbursts from officials and self-styled “analysts.”
However, one figure looms largest: a mysterious agent who allegedly sourced seven foreign footballers - hailing from Brazil, Argentina, and Spain - each supposedly with Malaysian ancestry.
The names are now infamous: Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
Published: Oct 14, 2025 3:37 PM
Updated: 6:37 PM
COMMENT | The country is in the midst of a national trial. Not in courtrooms, but in coffee shops, clubs, bars, and homes. No judges, no lawyers - just the public trying to make sense of one of the most bizarre football scandals in history.
When it comes to the court of public opinion, formalities, decorum, and niceties are dispensed, and bold facts gleaned from various sources are presented to back or rebut claims.
At the centre of this storm is the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), but the indictment goes far beyond.
It implicates government systems, civil servants, and the very machinery of governance that allowed this fiasco to unfold.
The evidence is scattered across media reports, damage-control statements, unsolicited outbursts from officials and self-styled “analysts.”
However, one figure looms largest: a mysterious agent who allegedly sourced seven foreign footballers - hailing from Brazil, Argentina, and Spain - each supposedly with Malaysian ancestry.
The names are now infamous: Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
How did FAM officials discover these players had Malaysian grandparents? It is hard to imagine bigwigs like Yusoff Mahadi or S Sivasundaram jetting off to South America on a genealogical treasure hunt.
It all points to FAM outsourcing the job to an agent - and that agent was handsomely rewarded.
Agents stand to earn millions
To understand the scale of potential payments, consider this, published by the BBC in July:
Premier League clubs paid a combined £409.1 million (RM2.25 billion) in agent fees from February 2024 to February 2025.
Chelsea alone spent over £60 million; Manchester City, £52 million.
Even League Two clubs shelled out millions, with Fleetwood topping the list at £284,000.
If agents typically earn up to 10 percent, the cost of acquiring these players was likely substantial.
For context, Andrew Lee Tuck - who once played for Malaysia - was valued at €250,000 (RM1.23 million) in 2000.
The market has improved over the years, thanks to clubs willing to spend exorbitant amounts to secure top talent. Player valuations have surged - Serrano is now worth RM1.96 million, Garcés RM4.9 million, and Machuca over RM14.7 million.
So yes, someone laughed all the way to the bank, but FAM has sealed its lips on the identity of the agent or his involvement.
Dubious documents
FAM’s closest admission came on Oct 7, when it blamed an “administrative error,” claiming a staff member mistakenly uploaded documents from “an agent” instead of official ones from the National Registration Department (NRD).
Did the agent submit dubious documents to the FAM? But the NRD documents were not authentic either.
On Sept 19, NRD director-general Badrul Hisham Alias admitted that original handwritten birth records of the players’ grandparents could not be retrieved. Instead, official copies were issued based on secondary evidence.
This may be a moot point but the real question remains: Was public money used to fund this disreputable exercise?
Rewind to January, when the government doubled Harimau Malaya’s development budget to RM30 million for 2025, with RM15 million expected from the private sector.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the allocation would be used to enhance the development programmes for Harimau Malaya at every level, in addition to preparing the senior team to be more competitive in every international tournament they participate in.
Harimau Malaya
The FAM will also use the funds for management, which requires a complete overhaul to ensure that the national players continue to receive support from expert staff and appointed coaches, he added.
“Efforts will also focus on creating more potential players for the Harimau Malaya squad by providing extensive exposure to the under-23 national team, which indirectly ensures the senior team is always equipped with experienced players,” Anwar said in a statement.
But does “competitive” now mean importing foreign players and fast-tracking their citizenship?
How much did the whole exercise involving the seven players cost? Since public money is involved, don’t we, as taxpayers, have a right to know how the RM30 million was spent?
Will the FAM open their books, or will the Sports Ministry compel them to do so? It is our money and we want to know how it was spent.
In this saga, the only person who truly competed - and won - was the agent. And unlike 007, he did not need a licence to thrill - just a passport, a few documents, and a federation willing to play along.
The FAM will also use the funds for management, which requires a complete overhaul to ensure that the national players continue to receive support from expert staff and appointed coaches, he added.
“Efforts will also focus on creating more potential players for the Harimau Malaya squad by providing extensive exposure to the under-23 national team, which indirectly ensures the senior team is always equipped with experienced players,” Anwar said in a statement.
But does “competitive” now mean importing foreign players and fast-tracking their citizenship?
How much did the whole exercise involving the seven players cost? Since public money is involved, don’t we, as taxpayers, have a right to know how the RM30 million was spent?
Will the FAM open their books, or will the Sports Ministry compel them to do so? It is our money and we want to know how it was spent.
In this saga, the only person who truly competed - and won - was the agent. And unlike 007, he did not need a licence to thrill - just a passport, a few documents, and a federation willing to play along.
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who tries to live up to the ethos of civil rights leader John Lewis: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com
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