No harm in giving athletes citizenship for 'national agenda', says Puad

Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi has defended the government’s decision to grant citizenship to the seven “heritage” football players sanctioned by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa).

“Why must we politicise ‘heritage’ players’ citizenship? What’s wrong in giving them citizenship in the interest of ‘national agenda’?” he asked on Facebook today.

The Johor state assembly speaker claimed it was a strategic decision made by the government to ensure Malaysia gets qualified to enter the World Cup games.

“This should be supported as it would help elevate the quality of our sports and motivate local talents to compete in the international arena,” Puad added.

On Sept 26, Fifa sanctioned the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven “heritage” players for breaches of Article 22 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code on forgery and falsification.

Fifa said FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the players’ eligibility, enabling them to feature in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10.

It also said that FAM must pay a fine of 350,000 Swiss francs (RM1.9 million), while each of the seven players was also slapped with a 2,000 Swiss francs (RM10,500) fine.

Yesterday, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told Dewan Rakyat that he had exercised his power granted under the Federal Constitution to consider the seven “heritage” footballers as fit to be granted Malaysian citizenship.

Saifuddin said Section 20(1)(e) provides discretionary power to the home minister when considering a citizenship application from a foreigner, particularly in the fulfilment of the minimum residency requirements.

“In the Constitution, there is a section called 20(1)(e), where the minister can use his discretionary powers.

“The power under 20(1)(e) means that the definition of ‘residency’ in the Constitution allows for the applicant’s presence outside the country to still be considered as being within the country.

“That is the legal language used in this book, in this text. I applied Section 20(1)(e) to fulfil the residency requirement,” he said during Minister’s Question Time in Dewan Rakyat.

Look at Singapore

Meanwhile, Puad urged the public to emulate Singapore’s move in uplifting its sports, citing its Foreign Sports Talent (FST) scheme.

Under the programme, the Umno leader said foreign sports talents’ citizenship applications are fast-tracked, with many of them winning international sporting events.

Puad also pointed out that the programme is limited to certain sports, with only a small number of talents getting through.

“This serves to motivate local Singaporeans to become more competitive.

“Plus, once they (foreign talents) receive their citizenship under FST, they will enter another programme to integrate them with the local culture,” he added.

The FST, previously known as Project Rainbow, was introduced in 1993.

However, several quarters have called for the programme to be scrapped, arguing that Singapore already has enough local talent capable of competing in the international arena.

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