M'sia's own goal: Foreign footballers and dubious birth certs

COMMENT | Malaysia’s football scene has been rocked by a scandal almost too absurd to believe: the National Registration Department (NRD) issued birth certificates to the grandparents of seven foreign football players - from Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Spain - on the patently implausible claim that they were born in Malaysia.

The claim is especially far-fetched, given that Malaysia has no historical, colonial or migratory ties with these countries, making the alleged Malaysian births of these grandparents virtually impossible.

This alleged scheme, seemingly designed to make the players eligible under International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) regulations, raises serious concerns about the misuse of the law and the integrity of national institutions.

An extremely serious issue - one that Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has casually brushed aside - is the blatant misuse of section 10A of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957, under which the NRD issued these certificates.

Section 10A is a special provision allowing the

Click here to read article