Top Malaysian football officials quit over foreign-born players scandal

The entire executive committee of Malaysia’s football association resigned on Wednesday, the latest blow in a damaging eligibility row over forged documents used to field foreign-born players in Asian Cup qualifiers.FIFA suspended seven foreign-born players for a year in September and fined the Malaysia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="19462" data-entity-type="organization">Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) US$400,000 for submitting false documents claiming they had Malaysian ancestry.Football’s global governing body had launched an investigation after receiving a complaint following Malaysia’s 4-0 thrashing of Vietnam in a June Asian Cup qualifier.“The resignations are to safeguard the reputation and institutional interests of [the association] and to mitigate the risk of further adverse consequences that could affect Malaysian football as a whole,” Yusoff Mahadi, FAM’s acting president, told reporters.FAM appealed the sanctions, but a FIFA committee rejected it and issued a scathing report slamming the association for “not taking any discernible disciplinary action”.FAM acting president Yusoff Mahadi announcing the resignations. Photo: EPAIt ordered a full investigation into FAM’s conduct and governance.