FAM’s last act after a battered and bloodied knockout

EXCLUSIVE | FAM’s last act after a battered and bloodied knockout


10 Jan 2026 • 7:00 AM MYT



Citizen Nades
A legally qualified journalist and a good governance champion

Image Credit: Sinar Daily/FAM FB


OPINION: Three days ago, the beleaguered Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) finally waved the white flag in its battle against sanctions imposed by FIFA last September.


The bravado that once echoed through press conferences and Wisma FAM evaporated quickly -- like election promises forgotten the morning after. Instead, FAM resembled a battered and bloodied boxer slumped on the corner stool, forced to reflect on its own folly.


Its acting president, Yusoff Mahadi, said FAM’s executive council was prepared to collectively step down from their posts if it would avert a FIFA sanction.


https://thesun.my/sports/football/fam-exco-ready-to-resign-to-avoid-fifa-suspension/


This, he said, was among the options being explored by FAM with a decision to be made without waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to decide on its appeal against FIFA’s sanctions.


“We are thinking of several options to preserve the national football scene; what we can do to reduce (the likelihood) or ensure FAM does not get suspended by FIFA.


“If (stepping down) is the best way forward, we will do so unanimously because we are united as an exco,” he was quoted as saying.


(FAM and seven naturalised Malaysian footballers were penalised by FIFA in September after the world football body said FAM submitted falsified documents to confirm the players’ eligibility before Malaysia’s 2027 Asian Cup qualifier against Vietnam on June 10.)


REWIND: On Sept 27 last year, when FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee imposed the sanctions, FAM attributed it to a “technical error” in the documents submitted to field the players in an Asian Cup qualifier.


https://www.malaymail.com/news/sports/2025/09/28/fam-acknowledges-technical-error-in-heritage-players-document-submission-vows-to-appeal-fifa-sanctions/192730


Noor Azman Rahman, FAM’s general secretary, said the error was made by one of its staff.


“FAM takes this matter seriously. However, we would like to emphasise that the mixed-heritage players involved are indeed Malaysian,” he said in a statement.


Prominent figures, including JDT owner Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim and former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, publicly questioned FIFA’s rationale.


Their shared sentiment is clear - if the players were already approved through official FIFA processes, why the sudden reversal?


The answer was and remains simple – initially, the players were approved based on what FAM had submitted, but when FIFA carried out its own investigations, the discrepancies arose.


(FIFA’s disciplinary committee fined FAM 350,000 Swiss francs (RM1.9 million), while each of the seven players was fined 2,000 Swiss francs (RM11,000) in addition to their 12-month suspension.)


When the committee published its report on Oct 7 did not just release a report -- it landed a haymaker. Malaysian football, from its administrators to its fans, was left staggering, heads bowed under the weight of scorn, shame, and a dignity stripped bare.


On Oct 7, FIFA’s report landed like a knockout blow: “Using fraudulent documentation to allow a player to compete constitutes, pure and simple, a form of cheating, which cannot in any way be condoned. Such conduct erodes trust in the fairness of competitions and jeopardises the very essence of football as an activity founded on honesty and transparency.”


https://m.malaysiakini.com/columns/757455


Malaysia’s football reputation was left staggering, stripped of dignity.


These 48 words were sufficient to conclude the monumental forgery and falsification of documents related to seven, which were then referred to as “heritage players”


A day after FIFA’s Appeals Committee dismissed its appeal, FAM was still in a buoyant mood – taking its challenge to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), with acting president Yusoff Mahadi describing it as “a major war” to defend Malaysia’s footballing reputation.


https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/760406


At that time, I noted: “But what kind of war is this, when the generals march in empty-handed? The birth certificates of the players’ grandparents presented by FAM are alleged to be forged. CAS will have access to the originals, and FAM will be left with egg - not honour - on their faces.”


CAS is an appellate body. It will not deliberate on the citizenship of players. Their role is only to determine if all procedures have been followed.


(For context, this link references its role in the appeal by Karim Mohamad, the president of Athletics Malaysia.)


https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1075285/ibrahim-fails-in-cas-appeal-against-decision-to-remove-him-from-iaaf-council


So, with the writing on the wall, FAM is assuming that it will escape punishment by just resigning?


Now, FAM flirts with the idea of resignation as a shield against punishment. But sanctions are already imposed. Stepping down does not erase them. Is this merely a ploy — resign, appoint an interim committee, then re-elect the same faces at an extraordinary general meeting?


After witnessing so much football mismanagement, Malaysians are beyond surprise —even by the sight of officials kneeling or lying prostrate, hands clasped in a plea for redemption.