Mayne-Nicholls, head of the FIFA Evaluation Commission for both tournaments, was banned in July of last year after he exchanged emails with officials from Qatar's Aspire Academy regarding the possibility of unpaid internships for his son, nephew and brother-in-law.

The internships were not ultimately provided and when the Evaluation Reports were compiled, Mayne-Nicholls, at one time considered a possible candidate to stand against Sepp Blatter the President of FIFA in 2014, warned that the Gulf State was too hot to stage a World Cup.

His ban was the first imposed on any official surrounding the 2018 and 2022 competitions, the bid process of which remain under criminal investigation after controversially being awarded to Russia and Qatar in December 2010.

German World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer and acting UEFA President Ángel María Villar Llona have both since been sanctioned for non-cooperation with the investigations into the bidding processes.

Mayne-Nicholls then opted to contest the decision of FIFA’s Ethics Committee, with their Appeals counterparts claiming they “agreed with the principles and arguments presented” by the official.

He had originally suggested he would take his appeal all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the Ethics Committee declined to rule in his favour.

His ban has been cut but the original fine of CHF20,000 (£14,000/$20,000/€18,000) imposed has been allowed to stand.

“While agreeing with the principles and arguments presented by the Adjudicatory Chamber, the Appeal Committee deemed that the sanction imposed was not proportionate to the breaches committed,” a FIFA statement read.

“The ban imposed on Mr Mayne-Nicholls entered into force on 3 July 2015.”

Former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) vice-president Ganesh Thapa has not been so lucky, however, as the FIFA Appeals Committee decided to uphold the 10-year ban from all footballing activity he was given for “various acts of misconduct over several years” in November.

Thapa, head of the All-Nepal Football Association, was deemed to have offered and accepted cash payments from another football official, for both personal and financial gain relating to the 2009 and 2011 elections for the FIFA Executive Committee at the AFC Congress.

The 55-year-old remains under investigation in Nepal for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars of football development money from both FIFA and the AFC.

“In a spirit of good faith and in line with the principle established by article 85 paragraph 2 of the FCE, the period of 210 days during which Mr Thapa refrained from taking part in any football-related activity during the ethics proceedings was taken into account in the enforcement of the sanction,” said the statement.

“Consequently, the FIFA Appeal Committee has decided that the aforementioned ban imposed on Mr Thapa retroactively entered into force on 16 April 2015.”