The official, also vice-president of the Qatar Football Association (QFA), was sanctioned on November 15 last year for allegedly not cooperating with an ethics investigation.

He was found guilty by the Ethics Committee of breaking FIFA rules on duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting, as well as his "general obligation to collaborate".

An Appeal Committee headed by Bermuda's Larry Mussenden has ruled that there is not enough evidence to keep the ban in place.

The verdict is highly controversial because Al-Mohannadi was barred from standing in FIFA Council elections at the AFC Extraordinary Congress in September because of the allegations against him.

The Congress in Goa in India, then descended into farce when 42 out of 44 voting members raised a "no" card when asked to approve the agenda by Bahrain's AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

It meant the Congress only lasted 26 minutes with the protest a show of support for Al-Mohannadi.

Elections have been rescheduled for Bahrain on May 8 but the Qatari is not on the candidate list as he was still suspended when the closing date for nominations passed in January.

He had been considered one of the favourites to land a role at FIFA's top table. 

Following the decision of the Appeal Committee, Al-Mohannadi's fine of CHF20,000 (£16,000/$21,000/€18,000) has also been quashed.

Further details about the ethics investigation he was accused of not cooperating with have not been revealed.

"The Appeal Committee considered that the evidence available was not sufficient to establish to the appropriate standard, i.e. to the comfortable satisfaction of the members of the Appeal Committee, that Mr Al-Mohannadi had acted in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics," a FIFA statement said.