As the FIFA World Cup in Russia approaches, scrutiny of the combined bid processes for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments has revealed a dark side that the football world can no longer afford to ignore. It was widely reported that members of the FIFA Executive Committee shamelessly sold their influence behind closed doors in exchange for personal benefits. Some have even alleged that the selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts suggest that the football world is being used for ulterior and greater geopolitical motives. The culmination of various investigations resulted not only in the expulsion of football officials from the football world but to the arrests and criminal trials of some of the biggest names in sports administration.
Buried within these tales is the protracted story of Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the president of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid selection committee, who was originally banned by the FIFA Ethics Committee from all football related activity for seven years. The sanction was ultimately reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which found that he did not receive a benefit as prohibited by the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE).[1] In any event Mayne-Nicholls ended up serving a ban longer than what was imposed by the CAS.
Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, 6 July 2015 (grounds date: 14 January 2016), no. 140 662 CHI ZH
FIFA Appeals Committee, 22 April 2016 (grounds date: 8 February 2017), no. 140 662 CHI ZH
CAS 2017/A/5006, Harold Mayne-Nicholls v. FIFA
The case is particularly egregious considering that (a) FIFA used the incorrect version of the FIFA Code of Ethics as it applied the 2012 version to events that occurred in 2010; (b) Mayne-Nicholls served a sanction longer than what ultimately handed down because of the delay of the FIFA Ethics Committee and Appeal Committee in issuing the grounds of the two decisions; and (c) FIFA refused to provide the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process, otherwise known as the “Garcia Report”, that contained evidence relevant to the case.
FIFA World Cup 2018 and 2022 Bid Evaluation...
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