By Michael Church
Malaysia coach Peter Cklamovski will lead a much-changed squad into Thursday’s Asian Cup qualifier against Laos as the fallout from an eligibility controversy continues to impact the team ahead of the game in Vientiane.
The Australian has been denied the services of Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel as FIFA suspended the recently naturalised septet, citing doctored documentation.
The players have been handed 12-month bans and their absences leave a significant hole in a squad that had already started to see the benefits of the new arrivals.
While none of the seven had played more than four times for the country, Malaysia notched up wins over Nepal and Vietnam in Asian Cup qualifying as well as securing friendly victories against Palestine and Singapore since their inclusion.
Malaysia have never qualified for the World Cup or won the Asian Cup and started looking at talent nurtured abroad after seeing neighbours Indonesia tap into a diaspora based in the Netherlands, the country’s former colonial power.
The Indonesians have flourished since federation president Erick Thohir started to scour Europe for players eligible to play for the team, and the country will feature in the fourth round of Asia’s World Cup qualifiers this week.
The Merah Putih face Saudi Arabia and Iraq in Jeddah with a realistic chance of securing a World Cup berth for the first time since gaining independence in 1951, leaving the Malaysians to look on enviously.
The rivalry between the countries is deep-rooted and has fuelled Malaysian desire to use similar methods to improve their standing within the game, with Tunku Ismail Idris, the crown prince of the state of Johor, leading efforts to close the gap.
Johor Darul Ta’zim, the club owned by the prince, dominate the domestic scene, winning the Malaysia Super League in each of the last 10 seasons after signing an array of overseas players, including now-banned trio Figueiredo, Irazabal and Hevel.
Tunku Ismail has also exerted his influence on the national team, playing a key role in the hiring of Cklamovski and helping to facilitate the naturalisation of the now-sanctioned players.
The Football Association of Malaysia has launched an appeal to governing body FIFA against the sanction, admitting there had been a “technical error” in documents submitted and signalling they could take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The prince, meanwhile, has accused FIFA of double standards in the biggest scandal to hit the game in the country since 1994, when more than 100 players were banned for match fixing.
To make matters worse, Cklamovski’s team face the possibility of a points deduction in Asian Cup qualifying, with the Asian Football Confederation saying it will “carefully review” the situation once proceedings have been concluded.
(Reporting by Michael Church; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) (Source: Reuters)
The post Soccer-Player bans impact Malaysian ambition in Asian Cup qualifiers first appeared on Fastbreak.
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