KUALA LUMPUR – FIFA has deemed the sanctions imposed on the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven naturalised Harimau Malaya players to be lighter than warranted.
This was stated by FIFA’s Appeal Committee in its full reasoning for rejecting appeals from both FAM and the players, thereby upholding the decision made by the world football governing body’s Disciplinary Committee last September.
The committee noted that the severity of the penalties had been challenged during the appeals process.
“FAM and the players raised concerns regarding the severity of the sanctions in their submissions. The committee reviewed these claims in light of the facts, evidence, and relevant precedent.
“In our assessment, had the FIFA Disciplinary Committee had access to all materials now available in these appeal proceedings, the sanctions imposed on all appellants would have been significantly harsher.
“The committee wishes to emphasise that, were it not for the principle of non reformatio in pejus under Article 63.4 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, heavier penalties than those initially imposed would have been applied,” FIFA said in its full report yesterday
In September, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee had fined FAM 350,000 Swiss Francs (approximately RM1.9 million), while each of the seven players – Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel – received fines of 2,000 Swiss Francs (around RM10,600) and were suspended from all football-related activities for 12 months. – November 19, 2025