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Agencies
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary Committee on Friday provisionally suspended player Santos Monteiro Junior Wanderley from Asian football for a period of 60 days pending a full investigation into his nationality status.
The decision is based on the announcement on Wednesday by Indonesian state authorities that the Indonesian passport held by Wanderley was a forged or falsified document.
The Asian soccer governing body saya it is investigating players using fake passports to comply with eligibility rules in national team and club competitions.
The AFC has suspended Brazilian forward Wanderley for 60 days"pending a full investigation into his nationality status."Its disciplinary committee is judging the case.
In an Asian Champions League quarterfinal first-leg match last week, Wanderley scored twice to help Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates beat El Jaish of Qatar 3-0.
Al Nasr faces sanctions before the return match in Dubai on Sept. 14.
The AFC news release suggested a trade in fake documents for non-Asian players to comply with a required quota of Asian players in club lineups.
Wanderley, currently registered to Al Nasr (UAE), is Brazilian born but registered in the AFC Champions League 2016 (ACL) as an 'Asian player', pursuant to Article 33.1 of the AFC Champions League 2016 Regulations.
According to the regulations (Article 26.4.3), any player participating in the ACL shall be deemed ineligible if the AFC determines that any document submitted during registration is false.
The AFC has been investigating the implementation of the so-called 'Asian player' or '3+1' rule and its variations within the AFC Member Associations for some time. The primary purpose for its introduction was to create new playing opportunities for Asian footballers.
The AFC has taken note that a number of players not born in the territory of Asia have been obtaining and utilising the nationality of AFC Member Associations in order to purportedly comply with the rule. In this respect, the AFC has recently asked all AFC Member Associations whether they apply a variation of the '3+1' rule, and if so, a list of those players registered as 'Asian players'.
Furthermore, the AFC has recently written to three players that have participated or are participating in the AFC Champions League 2016 as 'Asian players' and asked for an explanation as to how they obtained their Asian nationality. The AFC is also conducting an investigation into the misappropriation of certain passports that have been utilised recently in AFC national team competitions.
