Fifa Qatari candidate for election to FIFA’s ruling council has been banned from all football-related activities for a year after he refused to cooperate with ethics investigators.

Saoud Al-Mohannadi “did not cooperate with the investigatory chamber in the proceedings against a third party,” Fifa ethics committee judges said in a statement. It also fined him 20,000 Swiss francs.

The ban prevents Al-Mohannadi from contesting next February’s election to find representatives from Asia on the strategy-setting FIFA Council.

The vote was scheduled in September but delayed in an apparent protest by Asian members of Fifa against the ethics case.

Al-Mohannadi was among four candidates hoping to stand for two vacant seats representing Asia on the expanded Fifa council, which replaced the Fifa executive committee earlier this year.

The ethics committee said Al-Mohannadi breached his “duty to collaborate as a witness in separate proceedings,” though did not specify what case was. It previously said the issue was not connected to the 2022 World Cup bidding contest won by Qatar.

Al-Mohannadi can appeal the sanction to Fifa and later the Court of Arbitration for Sport.