FIFA Excludes Five Portuguese From Macau Squad

FIFA has confirmed the exclusion of five Portuguese players from the Macau men’s team for not holding passports from the semi-autonomous Chinese region, coach Lasaru Oliveira told Luce on Friday.

The Portuguese-Angolan said that the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA, in French) had already informed the Macau Football Association of its decision to ratify the exception introduced by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC, in English).

The decision will immediately affect captain, Portuguese South African Nicolas Torrao, Filipe Duarte, who trains at Benfica and is a former Portugal youth international, centre-back Vitor Almeida and striker Youri Kewchang Capelo, lamented Lazaro Oliveira.

The coach said he has four players available for the two 2027 Asian Cup qualifying play-off matches against Brunei, scheduled for September 5 and 10.

Despite admitting that the situation is getting “more difficult”, Oliveira assured that Macau is not giving up on the dream: “Now it’s time to focus on the players present and try to make the most of their opportunities so that they can play two good games and try to get through.”

In the medium term, the coach added, the exclusion will also affect David Conga Cardoso, a player for Fabril do Barreiro who plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth division of Portuguese football, but is currently injured.

Vitor Almeida, 33, who has lived in Macau for nearly nine years, told Lusa the decision “doesn’t make sense.”

“We qualified for the World Cup about eight months ago and had no problems at all,” the defender recalls.

In October, Macau was eliminated from the 2026 World Cup race by Myanmar (formerly Burma) after a 5-1 away defeat and a 0-0 home draw. The matches, which featured Vitor Almeida, Nicolas Torrao, Filipe Duarte and midfielder Nuno Pereira, who was then playing for Imortal, featured in the Portuguese championship.

JTM newspaper reported last week that the Macau Football Association had appealed the decision to FIFA.

Vitor Almeida called the exclusion unfair to foreign-born players such as Nicolas Torrao, who “has already represented the national team for more than 20 years and played at youth level”, but especially to Youri Capelo.

Capelo, who was born in Macau 31 years ago, told Lusa he was “disappointed and a little upset.”

“We all work, we don’t live off football. So it takes a certain amount of effort on our part to go to training, and it’s always a source of pride for everyone to be able to represent the place where they were born,” he stressed.

Only Chinese citizens who hold Macau permanent resident status can obtain a Macau passport.

The son of a Thai mother and Portuguese father, Capelo said Macau authorities believed he would have to give up his Portuguese passport.

“Since this is my personal decision, I do not want to renounce my citizenship,” he explained.

The Benfica Macau player, the defending champions, said FIFA’s decision “could scare off young people” but warned there were currently few non-Chinese “playing for the junior ranks of the Macau national team”.

Vitor Almeida, who also heads the football school, stressed the importance of not “resigning and giving up” so that young people in the region “have the opportunity to represent the Macau national team, even if they are not Chinese.”

A spokeswoman for the Macau Football Association confirmed Lusa’s exclusion under the AFC rules approved in 2021, and expressed regret that there was no exemption for “players who have already represented Macau for many, many years.”

The association promised that it would “definitely try again” to overturn FIFA’s decision, but ruled out the possibility of referring the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.