By Andrew Warshaw
July 21 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the FIFA-appointed official who led the inspection team that evaluated the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding candidates, has emerged from his prolonged silence with all guns blazing to launch a blistering attack on those he says turned his life into a “nightmare”.
The former Chilean FA president, frustrated at being unable to speak out but now free to resume his career in football after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cut his ban for seeking unpaid intern work in Qatar for relatives to two years, says he still doesn’t understand why he was treated so unfairly and wants an apology from FIFA’s previous ethics chiefs for making him feel “like a criminal”.
Because of the CAS ruling, Mayne-Nicholls has served his time, his original seven-year ban for “repeatedly asking for personal favours” from the Qataris having already been trimmed to three years by the FIFA appeals committee.
Although he believes justice has at last been done, he remains angry and upset at having had his life turned upside down.
“It’s been a nightmare and I’m relieved it’s over,” Mayne-Nicholls told Insideworldfootball in an exclusive interview. “One thing is to be out of the game by choice. It’s quite another being forced out, losing all your work and having your image damaged.”
“It’s not only the punishment that that has been tough. I built up a reputation in football since the 1980s and it took me years to do that. One mistake and they destroyed my reputation.”
The initial ethics committee ban imposed on Mayne-Nicholls was handed down after an email exchange came to light showing he requested work placements for his son and a nephew 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, hitting him with breaches of four articles of the ethics code.
Whilst he admits his conduct was naive, Mayne-Nicholls has long insisted he did not in any way benefit personally – unlike other FIFA officials banned for a similar length of time for far worse offences.
“I have always admitted I made a mistake but I’m not the first person to use contacts to help relatives. It was clear from the very beginning that I never took – or intended to take – any personal benefits.”
Mayne-Nicholls says he first heard of the pivotal CAS ruling after landing in New York on personal business. “How ironic that I got the news in the city that is investigating at the whole corruption business at FIFA.”
Since being partially exonerated by the CAS ruling, the former journalist says he has had 134 messages of goodwill from colleagues in 26 countries and that support is still flooding in. “Friends all over the world have been sending me messages. After all, I served FIFA on various projects for 19 years.”
As for returning to football, Mayne-Nicholls says his first priority will be to get back to his beloved home club Antofagasta Portuario where he was chairman until his ban. His first official function will be to attend a junior tournament in Northern Ireland next week that includes a Chilean team linked to his charity foundation.
Thereafter he will get back to running courses, concentrate on his charity and bide his time before considering whether to re-enter football politics after being badly bruised by the events of the past few years.
He still can’t comprehend why FIFA’s ethics committee bosses – at the time investigative chief Cornel Borbely and leading judge Hans-Joachim Eckert – were so hard on him.
“The process was terrible. They made me feel like a criminal and of course I was not allowed to talk to the media to give my side of the story.”
Mayne-Nicholls recalls one particular episode during his ethics hearing at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
“The hearing was going on longer than expected and they decided to break for lunch and have it outside. When I said I didn’t want to have lunch and wanted instead to work on my case, they said that wasn’t allowed and if I didn’t comply, they would put me in a special room and not allow me to move.”
He is still mystified as to why it took so long for him to receive the written grounds for his ban, which held up his appeal to CAS. “How is it possible that FIFA took 15 months altogether yet it took CAS hardly any time at all?”
Having had both his career and personal life severely tainted, Mayne-Nicholls says he would love the opportunity to challenge FIFA about what he claims was an abuse of power but realises that won’t be possible now that Borbely and Eckert are no longer in their respective positions having been controversially replaced in May.
“I was asked by Borbely’s office to hand over all my correspondence with my lawyers but it’s the right of everyone to keep their correspondence private. Who is Borbely to ask for that? That’s a clear abuse of power.”
“Am I pleased Borbely and Eckert have been replaced? No because now that it’s all over, I’d have loved the chance to have them judged too.”
So if he could hand one message to FIFA’s former ethics chiefs, what would it be?
“Treat people like they would want to be treated themselves in an open way. Nothing more. I will carry this mistake my whole life and I have paid for it. But it doesn’t mean I am corrupt.”
“I’m still waiting for a letter of apology saying they, too, made a mistake. Anyone with honour would do that.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713576474labto1713576474ofdlr1713576474owedi1713576474sni@w1713576474ahsra1713576474w.wer1713576474dna1713576474