COMMENT | Having dismissed the appeal by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven “heritage” players who had been granted Malaysian citizenship, the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) issued, inter alia, the following statement.

“The Fifa appeal committee has rendered its decision... after analysing all submissions and conducting the hearing, the committee decided to dismiss the appeals and confirm the sanctions in full."

By virtue of the decision made by the world football governing body’s appellate committee, it can be concluded that it has essentially reaffirmed the earlier ruling by the Fifa Disciplinary Committee (FDC) on Sept 26, which alleged forgery and document falsification.

In its earlier verdict, the FDC had...