PETALING JAYA, Oct 25 — The Regent of Johor, Tunku Mahkota Ismail or fondly known as TMJ, disagrees with the suspension of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Secretary-General Datuk Noor Azman Rahman over the issue of seven heritage players.
His Highness stated that the measure was inappropriate and instead stressed that all parties involved should jointly bear the responsibility for the issue which recently shocked the nation’s football scene.
“I did not agree. To be honest with you, I feel the suspension of the FAM Secretary-General is not right. I do not agree with it. I feel many people were involved with this FAM project, helping FAM.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s in scouting players or any other way. For me, everyone should bear this responsibility and take responsibility, including the CEO (National team Rob Friend) and everyone,” His Royal Highness said at a press conference here today.
Furthermore, Tunku Mahkota Ismail stated that he was not interested in pointing fingers to find the guilty party, but instead wanted to focus on the best solution to ensure the issue is resolved comprehensively.
“To be honest with you, I am not interested in playing the blame game. And therefore, we are here to find a solution. What is the best solution for the national team? So, I’m not here to, I’m not interested in blaming anyone, but I do want to find a solution on how we can resolve this matter,” he said.
The owner of the national football giant club, Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), at the same time, expressed his readiness to accept criticism or accusations from external parties that link His Royal Highness to the crisis.
On Oct 17, FAM Deputy President Datuk S. Sivasundaram announced that Noor Azman was suspended with immediate effect following a disciplinary decision related to the documentation issue of the seven heritage players who represented the Harimau Malaya squad.
Last month, FAM and seven heritage players, namely Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel, were sanctioned by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee after being found to have violated Article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code regarding the forgery of documents.
In a previous statement, FIFA informed that FAM had submitted falsified documents to confirm the eligibility of the players to compete in the third round of the 2027 Asia Cup Qualifiers against Vietnam on June 10.
Following that, FAM was fined CHF 350,000 (approximately RM1.8 million), while each player was fined CHF 2,000 (around RM10,560) and suspended for 12 months from all football-related activities, effective from the date the notice of the decision was issued.
In an earlier explanation, FAM stated that a technical error occurred in the process of submitting documents involving the seven players, which was carried out by an administrative officer.
FAM also did not rule out the possibility of taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if the appeal at the FIFA level does not yield positive results.
