One-year ban: Garcés and Machuca suspended over alleged document forgery | OneFootball

One-year ban: Garcés and Machuca suspended over alleged document forgery | OneFootball

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·27 September 2025

One-year ban: Garcés and Machuca suspended over alleged document forgery

Article image:One-year ban: Garcés and Machuca suspended over alleged document forgery

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has imposed sanctions on the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven players —Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano— for violating art. 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code related to document forgery.

The FAM had sent inquiries to FIFA regarding call-up criteria and, in this process, used manipulated documentation to field the mentioned players.


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On June 10, 2025, the seven footballers represented the Malaysian national team in the match against Vietnam corresponding to the third round of the qualifiers for the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027. Subsequently, FIFA received a complaint related to the call-up criteria of Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano.

After initiating the usual procedures, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee evaluated all pertinent documentation and has imposed the following sanctions:

  1. The Football Association of Malaysia must pay FIFA a fine of 350,000 CHF.
  1. The players Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vitor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano must each pay FIFA a fine of 2,000 CHF.
  1. The mentioned players will also be subjected to a twelve-month ban from participating in all football-related activities, effective from the date of notification of the decision.

Additionally, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has referred the issue of call-up criteria for representing the Malaysian national team to the FIFA Football Tribunal for consideration.

The decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has been notified today to the FAM and the players. Under the relevant provisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, they have ten days to request the reasoned decision, which will be published on legal.fifa.com if requested. This decision can be appealed before the FIFA Appeal Committee.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

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