By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the FIFA-appointed Chilean who headed the inspection team that examined the credentials of all nine candidates for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, is to appeal against his seven-year ban imposed six months ago by FIFA’s ethics committee, saying he cannot understand why he has been treated so harshly.
Mayne-Nicholls was banned for asking the Qataris for possible work placements for some of his closest relatives at the famed Aspire youth academy in Doha. Aspire was strongly linked to Qatar’s successful 2022 World Cup bid and FIFA’s ethics judging chamber took the view that Mayne-Nicholls had seriously violated his responsibilities.
But of all the sanctions meted out by FIFA’s ethics committee over the years, few have raised as many eyebrows in terms of fairness. Significantly, Mayne-Nicholls’ technical report into all nine 2018 and 2022 candidates actually placed Qatar bottom of the list in terms of suitability for the World Cup and the former head of the Chilean FA has long insisted that his punishment hardly fitted the crime since he did not in any way benefit personally – unlike other FIFA officials banned for a similar length of time for far worse offenses including allegedly pocketing considerable sums.
Mayne-Nicholls fully admits he made a mistake and certainly his conduct was incredibly naive given the sensitivity of the World Cup bid process. He is not permitted to give interviews as the appeals process runs his course but is furious at receiving such a draconian sentence for nothing more than requesting internships which he himself would have paid for. He is equally angry that he only received the written grounds for his ban last week, having been punished way back in July.
In a statement he said he “always acted in football’s best interests, with neutrality and integrity” and said his punishment “basically contradicts the principles of the justice system.”
“I challenge anyone to prove that I offered or accepted any sort of perk, or that I put myself or any other individual in a situation involving a conflict of interest.”
Ethics committee officials are refusing to comment but Insideworldfootball has learned that the so-called “motivated decision” for Mayne-Nicholls’ ban runs to over 30 pages. It is understood Mayne-Nicholls made repeated requests to Aspire even after being initially turned down by Qatari officials.
It is also understood that ethics judges were anxious to send out a strong message that Mayne-Nicholls, as head of the technical inspection team, had a special responsibility in terms of neutrality and that anything which could potentially endanger the independent evaluation of World Cup bidders was a serious offence – not least actively asking for personal favours with those close to a bid committee, regardless of the outcome of such communication.
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