*FIFA bans him for 7 years as he goes to court
The 2018 and the 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar respectively have continued to be in the news.

Investigations into the bidding procedures are ongoing especially in the heat of allegations of corrupt practices in FIFA, the world football governing body.

There emerged interesting revelations today. The executive director of the prestigious Aspire Academy in Qatar, Andreas Bleicher, was said to have declined to assist a fifa official who asked for personal favours from him.

Mayne Nicholls

And Bleicher’s reason was to avoid any such action being interpreted as graft to favour the Qatar bid. Mayne-Nicholls, the head of FIFA’s inspection team for the evaluation of the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups allegedly asked for personal favours like admission of the son into the academy, treatment in Qatar and even tennis coaching lessons for his in-law.

Bleicher was said to have replied that it would be an honour to receive the people but later declined because the bidding process for the 2022 World Cup was on and it might send wrong signals and they could be accused of influencing the evaluation report from Nicholls. Interestingly, Nicholls’ evaluation committee rated Qatar poorly largely due to their weather.

But the news in football circles today was FIFA’s ban of Nicholls for seven years. And his offence was for asking for personal favours from an organisation in Qatar during a World Cup bidding process. Fifa is moving to clean up their image that has been battered by allegations of corrupt practices. They probably felt that Nicholls had exceeded bounds and hammered him.

A leaked email from FIFA’s chief ethics investigator Cornel Borbely said Mayne-Nicholls “repeatedly asked for personal favours — including special treatment for family members” from Qatar shortly before he produced the evaluation report.

A FIFA statement on Monday afternoon read: “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban Harold Mayne-Nicholls, former chairman of the Bid Evaluation Group for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and former Chilean Football Association president, from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for a period of seven years.

“The decision was taken following a hearing in the presence of the accused and the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, Dr Cornel Borbely.

“In accordance with article 36 of the FIFA code of ethics, more detailed information will be given after this final decision becomes effective.”

Mayne-Nicholls said he will fight the ban all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He said on his Twitter account: “I’m surprised FIFA have advertised a sanction that has pending appeals, and may be overridden by higher judicial bodies.

“I will appeal to the higher courts established in FIFA statutes and TAS/CAS.”

An email from Borbely to Mayne-Nicholls on November 12 last year states the Chilean had contacted “a person associated with a bid team” — Andreas Bleicher, Aspire’s executive director of international affairs — “shortly after the inspection tour and prior to the issuance of the Evaluation Report on Qatar”.

The email states Mayne-Nicholls “repeatedly asked for personal favours including special treatment for family members. But Mr Bleicher, apparently aware of the implications of granting such favour did not oblige.

Bleicher replied initially that it “would be an honour for us to host your son and your nephew for a football evaluation and training period in Aspire” but later than month responded to a follow-up email saying “considering FIFA’s ongoing bidding process for the FIFA World Cups 2018/2022 with the involvement of Qatar 2022, we believe it might be advisable not to follow up on these topics at this point, as this might leave space for incorrect interpretations, even though Aspire is not involved in the bidding process, of course not”.