KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — Twenty-three football players have been granted Malaysian citizenship through the naturalisation process since 2018, including seven national heritage players who were approved in accordance with all legal and constitutional provisions, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Each application is processed following Article 19 of the Federal Constitution and the Citizenship Rules 1964, which set three main conditions, namely that the applicant must be resident in Malaysia, be of good conduct, and have sufficient knowledge of the Malay language.
"So let me explain again, citizenship applications, how many football players have we approved? 23, including those seven," he said during the Minister’s Question Time (MQT) at Dewan Rakyat today.
Saifuddin was responding to Kangar MP Zakri Hassan's query on the statistics of players who have been naturalised since 2018 until now, as well as the qualifications and criteria used by the government or the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) in the process of determining a player to be naturalised.
He stressed that the seven players' naturalisation process included screening and assessment by the National Registration Department (JPN), including interviews and biometric checks, before being granted citizenship.
“Does the process of granting citizenship to these seven players comply with all the provisions of the Constitution, Acts, Citizenship Rules, and the Federal Constitution? The answer is yes, bold and very clear,” Saifuddin said.
This was in response to Zakri's supplementary query regarding the period for preparing player documents by JPN, the possibility of document forgery, and the Home Affairs Ministry's (KDN) actions to address issues that allegedly affected Malaysia's image.
It was previously reported that FAM and seven naturalised players for the national team were sanctioned by the International Football Association Board's (Fifa) Disciplinary Committee after being found to have violated Article 22 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (FDC) relating to forgery of documents.
The seven players are Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomas Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, Joao Vitor Brandao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.
Saifuddin added that, apart from football players, KDN had also approved applications for citizenship status for athletes in other sports, including gymnastics, shooting, basketball, and badminton, as well as highly skilled individuals in the fields of science, medicine, and engineering who had contributed to the country.
Meanwhile, at a press conference, he said that KDN explained the use of the exemption power under Section 20(1)(i) of the Second Schedule of Part Three of the Federal Constitution to enable the seven footballers to be granted citizenship status without violating the law.
The provision empowers the minister to consider an applicant as a resident in Malaysia even though they are abroad on reasonable grounds.
"When we invoke this section, the first thing is deemed to have been met. The applicant is of good conduct, has a clean safety record and possesses sufficient knowledge.
"So we confirm the qualifications according to the country's constitution," Saifuddin said.
The JPN also uses Section 10A of the Birth and Death Registration Act 1957 for the re-registration of births if the Registrar-General is satisfied with the evidence submitted, including through interviews and review of supporting documents.
“The law allows the registrar general to register a birth if there is sufficient evidence. There is no need to include the birth certificate of a grandparent as raised because it is not a requirement under Article 19,” he said.
Responding to allegations of document forgery by international bodies, the minister said that all documents issued by JPN were valid and based on Malaysian law.
The rules for representing the country were subject to the Fifa Statutes, which outlined four categories of eligibility for heritage players.
“That is the jurisdiction of FAM and Fifa. The issue of player heritage is compliance with international football regulations, not the country’s citizenship law,” Saifuddin said.
