Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Final whistle: FAM's reputation in tatters after sports court defeat By R Nadeswaran
Sunday, March 08, 2026
Malaysiakini : That spectacle came to an end yesterday when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld Fifa’s sanctions against FAM and seven naturalised players who had represented Harimau Malaya using false or forged documents.
Facundo
Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Gabriel
Palmero, Jon Irazabal, and Hector Hevel must now serve a 12-month
suspension. Their only reprieve: they may continue training with their
respective clubs.
When first sanctioned in September last year,
Fifa’s Disciplinary Committee said FAM had submitted falsified documents
to confirm the players’ eligibility, enabling them to feature for
Malaysia in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against
Vietnam on June 10.
The
committee held: “Using fraudulent documentation to allow a player to
compete constitutes, pure and simple, a form of cheating, which cannot
in any way be condoned.
“Such conduct erodes trust in the fairness
of competitions and jeopardises the very essence of football as an
activity founded on honesty and transparency.”
The conclusion was that none of the grandparents of the players was born in Malaysia, as Fifa through their own investigations, had possession of the original certificates.
Not a mistake, but fraud
FAM put forward a defence of a “technical error”
by its administrative staff. Its then-acting president, Yusoff Mahadi,
stressed that all documentation and procedures had been submitted
transparently in accordance with the prescribed guidelines.
However, the words used by the committee were telling enough to prompt Takiyuddin Hassan,
the chief Parliament whip for the opposition Perikatan Nasional
coalition, to state that the scandal went beyond “routine administrative
errors”.
Football Association of Malaysia former acting president Yusoff Mahadi
“This is not a technical mistake, but a deliberate act of fraud,” he said.
Still
defiant and proclaiming innocence, FAM appealed, but again, it was
dismissed by Fifa’s Appeals Committee. Reaffirming the damning verdict
from Fifa’s Disciplinary Committee - consigning the nation’s football
administrators to the bottom of the heap and concluding that “Malaysia
used forged documents”.
Former deputy law minister Hanipa Maidin
said that if he were representing FAM, his advice would be
straightforward - don’t waste time or money challenging the decision on
the “heritage” players issue.
He made these observations after
reviewing the full written judgment issued by the appeal committee, a
detailed document spanning 64 pages and 304 paragraphs.
But what did they have to persuade CAS to overrule Fifa? Nothing. Zilch. Zero.
Entering battle with manufactured lies
Undeterred
by calls to accept the decision, FAM was defiant, saying it would take
its challenge to the CAS, and Yusoff described it as “a major war” to defend Malaysia’s footballing reputation, declaring that all resources would be used.
But
what kind of war is this, when the generals march in empty-handed? The
birth certificates of the players’ grandparents presented by FAM are
forged. CAS will have access to the originals, and FAM will be left with
egg - not honour - on their faces.
The curtain has finally
fallen, and the fat lady will not sing. Staring down the firing squad is
the institution that gambled its credibility on forged papers.
FAM
marched into battle armed not with truth but with manufactured lies,
and now the war they declared has ended not in triumph but in ridicule.
The
irony is brutal: in trying to defend the nation’s pride, FAM has
bartered it away for cheap tricks. CAS was not swayed by doctored
documents, and when the originals surfaced, FAM was left naked before
the world - egg dripping from its face, dignity shattered, reputation in
tatters.
This was not football administration; it was the theatre of the absurd, staged by men who mistook forgery for strategy.
And
so, the verdict echoes louder than any whistle blown on the pitch:
Malaysia’s football crisis is not about talent, but about truth.
And
the truth, unlike forged papers, cannot be hidden in a drawer. It will
expose, it will shame, and it will demand accountability. The war FAM
chose to fight was lost - not on the field, but in the courtroom of
integrity.
In tennis parlance, it was game, set, and match to Fifa.
