The AFC announced its list of nominees for the 2026 awards on Oct. 16, including the FAM in the Member Association of the Year (Gold) category.
This nomination comes in the wake of a serious player naturalization scandal that resulted in heavy punishments from FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the AFC itself.
In the Gold tier, Malaysia competes against the football associations of Hong Kong and India. The AFC did not publicly disclose the specific evaluation criteria used to select the candidates, nor did it provide any explanation for the FAM’s inclusion following the recent controversy.
The 30th edition of the AFC awards, which features 19 categories designed to honor contributions to Asian football, will take place on Nov. 19 at the Aksra Theater in Bangkok, Thailand.
Other notable association nominations include Japan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia in the highest category, Platinum.
China, Thailand and Vietnam are nominated for the Diamond category, while Bangladesh, Guam, and Laos will compete in the Ruby tier.
The scandal of Malaysian football erupted over a year ago when FIFA launched a comprehensive investigation into the registration documents of seven naturalized players. FIFA’s disciplinary findings concluded that the civil registration documents, used to prove the players’ grandparents were born in Malaysia to meet national team eligibility requirements, were forged and invalid.
The group of ineligible players included Joao Figueiredo, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Facundo Garces, Jon Irazabal, Gabriel Palmero, and Hector Hevel, who originally hail from Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands.
In September 2025, FIFA fined the FAM 350,000 Swiss francs and handed each involved player a 12-month ban from competition.
In March 2026, the AFC ruled that Malaysia had to forfeit two 2027 Asian Cup qualifying games against Nepal and Vietnam due to fielding the ineligible players, accompanied by an additional $50,000 fine. This decision took away their 4-0 win against Vietnam and 2-0 victory over Nepal, eliminating them from the tournament.
Prior to that, FIFA had also stripped Malaysia of friendly match victories over Cape Verde, Singapore and Palestine, cementing the incident as the biggest scandal in the history of Malaysian football.
Regarding individual honors at the ceremony, Alireza Beiranvand, Feras Al Brikan and Salem Al Dawsari are the final contenders for the Asian Footballer of the Year. The women’s nominees are Australia’s Holly McNamara, North Korea’s Kim Kyong-yong, and South Korea’s Kim Hye-ri.
Lee Kang-in, Ayase Ueda, and Hwang In-beom are competing for the Asian International Player of the Year, while the women’s category features Alanna Kennedy, Caitlin Foord, and Yui Hasegawa.
Coaching nominations include Joseph Montemurro, Go Kuroda and Sadayoshi Shirai for the best men’s coach, alongside Ma Xiaoxu, Marziyeh Jafari, and Park Youn-jeong for the women’s award. Ryunosuke Sato, Maki Kitahara, and Rion Ichihara are up for the young player award, while Kim Won-sim, Yu Jong-hyang, and Noa Fukushima contend for the women’s category.