KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — The government will require all proposals to naturalise foreign-born athletes to be vetted by the National Sports Council (NSC) before they reach the Home Ministry, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said today.

Yeoh said the NSC is best positioned to determine whether a team genuinely needs a naturalised or “heritage” player, given its oversight of national development programmes.

“Any application for the naturalisation of athletes or players proposed by sports associations to the Home Ministry should first be referred to NSC, because through programmes like the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) and various grassroots initiatives, the NSC has spent money to ensure the development of new athletes.

“So NSC is more familiar with whether the team actually needs heritage players or not. And I would like to propose to the Home Ministry that it seek the NSC’s views first,” she said when winding up her ministry’s committee-level debate on the 2026 Budget.

Yeoh said the move is one of two immediate steps taken by the ministry as investigations led by former Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif continue into recent controversies surrounding naturalised national footballers.

The minister also revealed that the NSC held a town hall session with professional football clubs last November, where several clubs indicated plans to recruit naturalised players to strengthen their squads.

She noted that neither her ministry nor the NSC has the authority to block clubs from pursuing naturalisation, as it is permitted under Fifa rules.

“But if they want heritage players, they must follow proper procedures to ensure we do not see these controversies repeated,” she said.

Yeoh added that there would be no additional funding for the national football team for now, saying improvements must first be clearly demonstrated.