Oct 30 D-day as FAM’s lawyer Vittoz leads defence in heritage players saga

The Star

The fate of the seven Harimau Malaya heritage players – whether they will be allowed to return to action or remain suspended – is expected to be known on Oct 30.  The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), through their appointed specialist sports lawyer and advisor Serg Vittoz from the firm Charles Russell Speechlys, maintained that the national football body had committed no wrongdoing and have already filed an appeal with FIFA.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/zzmrhrnd  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00So really that's FAM right here.

00:03I've been instructed in this appeal procedure to advise and to represent FAM before the

00:10FIFA Appeals Committee.

00:12I'm going to be short in my presentation and then I will be ready to answer questions from

00:18the audience.

00:19So, the situation procedurally now is that the decision was issued on 26th of September

00:262025.

00:27On 14 October, so within the prescribed deadline, we filed an appeal.

00:33We have learned today that the decision would be issued on 30 October 2025 by the Appeal

00:43Committee.

00:44So the decision will be taken on 30 October and most likely notified to the parties either

00:50the same day or a few days later.

00:53So after this decision from the Appeal Committee, if the players or FAM are not satisfied with

01:00the decision, they may still appeal to CAS, which would take some other time to be resolved.

01:08So this is about the procedure, about the substance.

01:12I will not talk too much about the substance because this is an ongoing appeal case, but

01:17the primary objective of FAM in this appeal is to protect the players and to make FIFA understand

01:24that the players didn't have to do with anything in this case.

01:28And the second objective is to make FIFA understand that FAM as an institution didn't have any implication

01:37on any forgery, which is the violation that is put forward by FIFA.

01:45So the FAM as an institution didn't have anything to do with it.

01:49And so the objective is to have the sanction of the players and not, but also the sanction for the FAM and not.

01:56Hi, this is Eileen from the Associated Press.

02:00So I would just like to ask about the appeal process.

02:04I just want to be very clear, exactly what is FAM appealing against?

02:11Are you saying that FIFA is wrong, that the documents were not forged as FIFA has said?

02:18You know, could you give us an idea of what exactly are you appealing?

02:24Well, what I can say is that the appeal, the objective of the appeal is to have all sections

02:30unveiled, is to demonstrate that there was no forgery on the side of the player.

02:36There was no forgery on the side of the FAM as an institution.

02:41And if any wrongdoing was done, it should be targeted to the person in question.

02:48So that's the conclusions of the appeal, or the annulment of the sanction to the players,

02:56to the FAM as well, or a mitigation of the responsibility of the FAM as an institution.

03:03Sorry, if I get this right, you're saying now that you're going to absolve FAM,

03:09responsibility of the so-called forgery, and directly to the so-called party who is responsible,

03:15which is NRD. Is that what you're trying to say?

03:18No, what I'm trying to say is just that in the appeal, we are explaining that the FAM

03:23as an institution did not have anything to do in this situation.

03:28Meaning the supervisory aspect of the role of the FAM was not aware, touched by this situation.

03:38So you are not contesting that the documents were forged, but FAM is just saying we are not responsible.

03:46Is this correct?

03:48The FAM in the appeal does not contest that there is a litigious document.

03:53This document is compliant with the JPN documentation, but is not the same as the original birth certificate from the foreign authorities.

04:05So there is a discrepancy between foreign authorities birth certificate and the JPN birth certificate.

04:11And this is why we have to explain in the appeal to understand through the investigation why this middle document was drafted.

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