In five years, seven naturalized players will be eligible to represent the Malaysian national team again.

There will no longer be any "backdoor" or shortcut for the seven naturalized Malaysian players to return to the national team, unless they undergo the full naturalization process, meaning they reside in the country for a full five years.

This decision was made after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced that the documents previously used to qualify them to play for Malaysia were forged.

The seven players involved are: Hector Hevel, Imanol Machuca, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, Gabriel Palmero.

Sports and commercial lawyer Nik Erman Nik Roseli stated that the CAS ruling shows there is no easy path for them to return to the national team through a "heritage" route.

He said: "These players are not eligible to represent Malaysia even after completing the 12-month suspension. They still do not have Malaysian lineage.

They can only play for Malaysia if they live here for five years through the naturalization process."

Previously, the CAS arbitration panel consisting of: Lars Hilliger (Denmark) – Panel President; José Luis Andrade (Portugal), Massimo Coccia (Italy) heard the appeal from the seven players and the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

The hearing took place in Lausanne, Switzerland on February 26, before the decision was announced recently.

CAS decided to uphold the 12-month suspension imposed by FIFA but only applied it to official matches, not all football activities like training.

Simultaneously, CAS also dismissed FAM's appeal, thereby maintaining the fine of approximately 1.7 million Malaysian ringgit against the national football association.

Commenting further on this decision, lawyer Nik Erman opined that overall, FAM and the seven players can be considered to have failed in their appeal.

He said: "The appeal was dismissed because document forgery did indeed occur. All arguments claiming there was no forgery were rejected.

Why was the penalty adjusted to only ban participation in official matches? We can only know for sure when the full reasoned decision is published."