Vietnamese football amid Malaysia's naturalization scandal

29/09/2025 08:37:00 ChampionChatter

Despite the Football Association of Malaysia continuing to appeal and strongly rejecting the accusations from FIFA's Disciplinary Committee about the punishment concerning the irregularities in the paperwork of 7 national team players newly naturalized to play in two recent 2027 Asian Cup qualifying matches, this controversy has raised a warning signal about the booming naturalization trend in Southeast Asia.

1. Player naturalization has become a common practice and can now be considered a norm in world football. It is no longer unusual for a player to have two or three options to represent different national teams. Essentially, a person born and raised in several places may choose to play for a distant national team, which remains a personal decision. As long as everything is legal and follows proper procedures.

And that is precisely the issue: following correct procedures and legality. In Malaysia's case, according to FIFA's sanction, there were alterations that caused discrepancies compared to the original documents. Although those 7 players might have genuine connections to Malaysia's roots from previous generations, due to haste, Malaysia expedited the process, resulting in paperwork that did not match the original records.

We should not rush to discuss the second scenario, which involves forging documents, since only FIFA has the authority to conclude that. However, regardless of the case, it is certain that Malaysia did not handle the paperwork meticulously, leading to errors.

It is not difficult to explain the cause of such carelessness. It stems from the pressure to rapidly improve the team’s quality in a short period. To put it simply: a "performance obsession." At the 2023 Asian Cup, Malaysia gained continental attention by registering up to 14 naturalized players for their first appearance in the tournament.

During that competition, Malaysia achieved encouraging results, including a thrilling 3-3 draw against South Korea. This success pushed them to take greater risks with their naturalization policy by targeting high-caliber players active in major clubs and attempting to legally establish their bloodline connections to Malaysia. In this somewhat uncontrolled process, intentional elements to perfect the paperwork easily emerged.

The Malaysian football naturalization scandal has provided many lessons for Vietnamese football. Photo: Tuấn Phạm

2. The core of the matter likely lies in the motivation behind player naturalization. What Malaysian football did effectively achieved its goal with a historic win against Vietnam. Surely, without the scandal, the number of naturalized players Malaysia fielded in the return match would have increased even further.

That is the downside of the player naturalization trend. It can turn the national team’s development into a one-way street with no turning back. This "infatuation" will completely undermine the domestic training system as risky naturalization strategies focus on recruiting top-level players playing abroad.

This is the lesson Vietnamese football must seriously learn from this scandal: the issue is not about doing everything by the book legally and properly, nor about following Malaysia’s footsteps, but about never putting oneself on a "one-way street," meaning succumbing to the pressure of success through naturalization and neglecting foundational methods to build a strong football system.

There is no guarantee that after Nguyễn Xuân Sơn’s success at the 2024 ASEAN Cup, other naturalized foreign players will bring similar value. Even attracting overseas Vietnamese players to represent Vietnam has yet to prove to be a breakthrough solution for quality improvement.

In other words, besides the caution expressed by the leadership of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Vietnamese football also needs clarity to have a comprehensive and long-term vision for the future of the sport. This clarity also applies to the mindset of the fans themselves.

The impact of naturalized players is quite evident, especially in terms of performance. Moreover, this trend is irreversible in global football. However, ultimately, a strong national team reflects the quality and level of its domestic football. Vietnamese football’s goal, whether naturalizing players or not, is to avoid having a "disconnected" national team compared to the rest of the system.

Comment (0)