Former Chilean Football Federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls is free to return to the game after his ban from football-related activities was cut by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to two years.
A former journalist, the 56-year-old administrator was given a seven-year ban by FIFA's ethics committee in July 2015 after he was investigated for asking Qatar's Aspire Academy if his tennis-playing sons could train at the facility, at his expense, and if there were any jobs available that might be suitable for his brother-in-law, a tennis coach.
This was adjudged to breach four articles of FIFA's ethics code as Mayne-Nicholls was the leader of the team that inspected the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, although his report gave Qatar his only "high-risk" ranking.
A FIFA appeal committee reduced that ban to three years in 2016 but then took 10 months to release the written grounds for the decision, which held up Mayne-Nicholls' CAS appeal until February.
Sport's highest court has now shaved another year from Mayne-Nicholls' sanction, which means he has now served his ban and is free to return to football administration.
CAS ruled he was guilty of breaching the ethics code articles related to general conduct, loyalty and conflicts of interest but was not guilty of accepting gifts or other benefits, as nothing came of the Aspire inquiry.
A CAS statement added: "Consequently, Harold Mayne-Nicholls's ban from taking part in any football-related activity at national and international level has been served in its entirety. "
Mayne-Nicholls, who is of Croatian and English descent, considered challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency in 2015 and has spent the last few years running a sport-related charity for young people in Chile.
Source: PA
