Intro:

Former Chilean football federation president and one-time FIFA presidency hopeful Harold Mayne-Nicholls receives a seven-year ban from football by FIFA's Ethics Committee.

Script:

The official chosen by FIFA to inspect the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host candidates has been banned from football for seven years for breaking ethics rules.

World football's governing body's Ethics committee gave no reason for its decision to suspend Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a former president of Chile's football federation, who is disputing the sanction.

He has previously spoken about conversations he had in 2010 with officials in Qatar about possible work placements for relatives at the Aspire youth academy.

Details of that case were also published by a website last year, which got hold of a leaked e-mail sent to Mayne

Nicholls by Cornel Borbely, who heads the investigation chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee.

Mayne-Nicholls was considering standing in the FIFA presidential election when his ethics case was reported last year.

FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert chaired the panel which conducted a personal hearing for Mayne-Nicholls.

Eckert's statement said, "more detailed information will be given after this final decision becomes effective."

Challenges to FIFA's appeals committee and subsequently to CAS typically take around one year.