President of the Malaysian Football Federation may lose his position over the case of naturalized players

(Dan Tri) - Malaysian media reported that the position of President of the Malaysian Football Association (FAM) may change. The news of FAM changing its President appeared right after the scandal involving naturalized Malaysian players.

Malaysia's leading English daily New Straits Times wrote: "There will be a sudden change in the leadership of the Football Association of Malaysia, the position of FAM President is rumored to be changed soon."

“There is information that the FAM President position is vacant, as Datuk Joehari Ayub is no longer in this position. This is very surprising because Datuk Joehari Ayub only took office as FAM President in February.

Not everyone supports the recent mass naturalization policy of the Malaysian national team (Photo: ASEAN Football).

“It is possible that FAM Vice President Datuk Yusof Mahadi is ready to take over as interim President, if FAM makes an announcement to change their top leadership in the coming days,” the New Straits Times added.

FAM Vice President Datuk Yusof Mahadi himself has also spoken out about the upcoming changes at the top of the Football Association of Malaysia. When asked about the above issue, Datuk Yusof Mahadi told the Malaysian press: “Please wait until next week, there may be an official announcement.”

The New Straits Times added: “Several other FAM officials, including Secretary-General Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, did not comment on the change of the FA President, but these officials did not deny what was reported in the press.”

Recently, Malaysian football has been constantly questioned by domestic football fans about the origin of new naturalized players, but FAM has not had a satisfactory answer.

FAM Vice President Datuk Yusof Mahadi is ready to replace incumbent President Datuk Joehari Ayub (Photo: NST).

These players appeared in the 4-0 victory over Vietnam on June 10, at Bukit Jalil Stadium (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). This was a match in the third qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup.

Recently, one of the above naturalized players, center back Facundo Garces (of Argentine origin), made a mistake about his origin in a Spanish newspaper.

Initially, he said that he was of Malaysian descent through his great-grandfather, but later he quickly corrected that it was from his grandparents, blaming the errors on the typing and documentation. The player's inconsistency further increased doubts about the transparency of the naturalized Malaysian player's origins.

This has seriously damaged FAM's reputation. In Malaysia, a number of experts and fans do not support the policy of massive naturalization of players that FAM is pursuing. Especially when these naturalized players are of unknown origin, the reaction is even stronger.

That is one of the reasons why FAM President Datuk Yusof Mahadi lost points. Datuk Yusof Mahadi was elected as FAM President in February, for the term 2025-2029.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/chu-tich-lien-doan-bong-da-malaysia-co-the-mat-chuc-vi-vu-cau-thu-nhap-tich-20250821115052938.htm