Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid inspector, was banned from football for seeking several favours for family members, the Fifa ethics committee has revealed, months after imposing a seven-year sanction.
The Chilean “repeatedly asked for personal favours related to the hosting and training of his relatives (a son, nephew and brother-in-law),” Fifa ethics judges said in a statement on Thursday.
It had been previously reported Mayne-Nicholls approached the Aspire academy in Doha about unpaid work and intern positions for family members. The youth academy was linked to Qatar’s successful 2022 World Cup hosting bid.
“Mr Mayne-Nicholls did not act in Fifa’s interests and ignored his responsibility as a high-ranking Fifa official, someone who was expected to act with utmost neutrality and integrity, in order to pursue his own personal interests,” the statement said.
The ethics committee said Mayne-Nicholls broke several articles of Fifa’s ethics code, including offering or accepting gifts and conflicts of interest.
Having provided a written explanation for his ban, Mayne-Nicholls can now take his case to the Fifa appeals committee.
Mayne-Nicholls was appointed by Fifa in 2010 to lead a six-member team evaluating the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidders.
In the technical report, Mayne-Nicholls singled out the eventual winners Russia and Qatar as the biggest risks to Fifa as potential host nations.
Mayne-Nicholls was voted out of office as president of the Chile FA, shortly after completing his work on the World Cup bids.
