Malaysia makes a surprising decision amid the FIFA penalty storm

The Football Association of Malaysia has decided to reinstate Datuk Noor Azman Hj as Secretary General following the investigation into the case of seven illegally naturalized players.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) met on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, and resolved that the suspension of Datuk Noor Azman Hj. Rahman has ended, allowing him to immediately resume his duties as FAM Secretary General.

Previously, on December 22, 2025, the FAM Executive Board discussed the findings of the Independent Investigation Committee (IIC) report and decided at that time to continue suspending Secretary General Datuk Noor Azman (effective from October 17, 2025) to refer the matter to the FAM Disciplinary Committee for further action.

Therefore, the FAM Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Dr. Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu, convened and after considering the suspension period and the IIC report dated December 15, 2025, decided to reinstate Datuk Noor Azman to his role as FAM Secretary General with immediate effect.

This latest decision indicates that Datuk Noor Azman was only involved in administrative violations and was not guilty of any criminal offenses or related to the forgery of documents concerning the seven naturalized players sanctioned by FIFA.

Earlier in October, FAM immediately suspended Datuk Noor Azman after reports surfaced that FIFA was investigating seven naturalized players in the national team. This decision was announced by FAM Vice President Datuk S. Sivasundram during an urgent press conference at the FAM headquarters, effective from October 17, 2025.

FAM confirmed it is cooperating closely with FIFA during the investigation process and pledged to strengthen governance and oversight in player registration to ensure that negligence or document forgery cases do not recur in the future.

Previously, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officially launched an investigation into the Secretary General of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Mr. Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, who is currently suspended amid suspicions of falsifying documents for seven Malaysia-origin players.