COMMENT | At the outset, it must be stated that the seven players involved in the football scandal are not “heritage” nor naturalised players. Neither of their grandparents was born in Malaysia.

The seven, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Gabriel Palmero, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel, who the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) banned for 12 months, are just journeymen and fortune hunters who used forged documents to represent Malaysia.

They have been found guilty. To dress it up with any other term - such as claiming “historical links” - is a travesty, an insult to the descendants of the nation’s true legends.

Since Fifa sanctioned the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and the seven players on Sept 26 last year, the public has been denied the truth.

From the moment the scandal broke, FAM officials chose clouding over accountability, peddling fibs and half-truths to cover up a...