KUALA LUMPUR – Seven heritage players who were previously handed 12-month suspensions by FIFA are now free to resume all football-related activities with effect from today, the Malaysian Football League (MFL) confirmed.
The seven players are Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel.
Of the seven players initially sanctioned by FIFA, three – Figueiredo, Palmero, Irazabal and Hevel – play for Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), while Holgado is on the verge of joining DPMM FC, as previously confirmed by the Brunei-based club.
MFL chief executive officer Mohd Shazli Shaik Mohd confirmed the authenticity of a circular announcing the development, which was also widely circulated on social media.
“That is correct, it is genuine,” Bernama reported him as saying.
The controversy involving the seven players came to light in September last year after FIFA found that falsified documents had been used to support the eligibility of the foreign-born players to represent Malaysia in international matches.
In March, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld the seven players’ appeals against FIFA’s sanctions over the falsification of naturalisation and eligibility documents.
In its operative decision, issued without detailed reasons, CAS ruled that the players would still serve 12-month suspensions.
However, the suspensions applied only to official matches and not to all football-related activities. – November 1, 2026