Malaysia FA disappointed with CAS ruling to partially uphold player sanctions

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 : Malaysia's football association said on Friday it was disappointed by a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling to partially uphold sanctions on seven footballers who played for the national team using falsified naturalisation documents.

Deportivo Alaves' Facundo Garces was among seven players banned for a year by FIFA in September after it found that doctored documentation had been used so that they could play in an Asian Cup qualifier for Malaysia against Vietnam last year.

The other players were Gabriel Arrocha (Unionistas de Salamanca), Rodrigo Holgado (America de Cali), Imanol Machuca (Velez Sarsfield), Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel (all Johor Darul Ta'zim).

FAM then took the case to CAS after FIFA dismissed its appeal.

CAS eased the sanctions on Thursday, banning them from official matches only rather than all football-related activities, though it upheld FIFA's CHF 350,000 ($448,200) fine on the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

FAM said the ruling was "disproportionate" and that it had accepted responsibility for oversight failures.

"The outcome remains deeply disappointing, particularly for the players," FAM said in a statement. "They were not involved in the administrative process and had no knowledge of the matters related to administration."

It added that the players were Malaysians who obtained citizenship in accordance to the country's laws.

The association has previously denied committing forgery and vowed to investigate what it said was a "technical error" in the submission of documents.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is conducting a review into FAM, after the association's executive committee collectively resigned in January amid public uproar over the