Guenter Hirsch, the former president of Germany's Federal Court of Justice, resigned as a member of the FIFA tthics committee to protest what he said was the lack of effort to investigate alleged corruption within FIFA's ranks.

Hirsch said that after the selection of Russia and Qatar as the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, he felt that "those responsible in FIFA have no real interest in playing an active role in the resolution, pursuance and prevention of violation of FIFA's ethics code."

Qatar was accused of buying votes in its selection over the USA in the 2022 race. In November, the ethics committee suspended two executive committee members and four other FIFA officials for breach of the FIFA code of ethics.