Saoud Al-Mohannadi has criticised FIFA for making a "political" decision in banning him for a year ©Getty Images

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) vice-president Saoud Al-Mohannadi has criticised FIFA for making a "political" decision in banning him for a year and claimed he may attempt to stand again for a place on the governing body's ruling Council.

Al-Mohannadi, the vice-president of the Qatar Football Association, had his one-year suspension quashed by the FIFA Appeals Committee earlier this month.

It represented a rare example of an official being successful with an appeal against a ban from world football.

The official 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". 

But the Appeals Committee, led by Bermuda's Larry Mussenden, ruled there was not enough evidence to maintain the ban.

"I was condemned with the wrong decision and it just took the appeals committee of FIFA to see that," Al-Mohannadi told Agence France Presse.

"They didn't have a case, they knew that it was political.

"I wanted to clear my name after all these years in football, you know you don't want to end your career with suspicion, especially if you had no wrongdoing."

The AFC membership voted against the agenda at the Congress in Goa last year in protest at Saoud Al-Mohannadi being barred from standing in the FIFA Council elections ©Getty Images
The AFC membership voted against the agenda at the Congress in Goa last year in protest at Saoud Al-Mohannadi being barred from standing in the FIFA Council elections ©Getty Images

The decision to uphold Al-Mohannadi's appeal was highly controversial because he was barred from standing in FIFA Council elections at the AFC Extraordinary Congress in Goa in September because of the allegations against him.

The membership of the AFC then showed their support for the Qatari by raising a "no" card when asked to approve the agenda by Bahrain's AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

Elections have been rescheduled for Bahrain on May 8, three days prior to FIFA's Congress in the country's capital Manama, but the Qatari is not on the candidate list as he was still suspended when the closing date for nominations passed in January.

He claimed he was "examining" whether he would be able to stand and is not giving up hope of re-entering the race.

Last month, the AFC confirmed all eight candidates for their four slots on the Council have passed eligibility checks, including Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Ahmad, who is bidding for re-election, will go up against China's Zhang Jian, South Korea's Mong Gyu Chung and Mariano V Araneta of the Philippines for three berths.

Australia's Moya Dodd, Bangladesh's Mahfuza Akhter Kiron, North Korea's Han Un Gyong and Susan Shalabi Molano of Palestine are contesting the one available place reserved for a woman.