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Acting Football Association chairman Roger Burden has withdrawn his application for the permanent post over England's 2018 World Cup vote failure.
Burden, who was appointed in May, says he can no longer trust Fifa members after England lost out to Russia.
"I recognise that an important part of the role is liaison with Fifa, our global governing body," he said.
"I am not prepared to deal with people whom I cannot trust and I have withdrawn my candidacy."
Burden, who took the post after the resignation of Lord Triesman following what he called his "entrapment" by a national newspaper, said he would remain as acting chairman until a successor could be found.
He rose through the FA's ranks and is chairman of the Gloucestershire FA and the National Game Board.
After initially saying he was not interested in taking the role full-time, he later changed his mind with the FA due to name the permanent chairman early next year.
The FA's unhappiness at the 2018 decision is also expected to lead to moves to scrap plans for a friendly international against Thailand in June - the match was organised in an attempt to gain support for England's bid.
England 2018 officials said as many as six of the 22 Fifa members had promised to vote for England and in the end only one did so apart from Britain's own member Geoff Thompson.
Burden said he knew there may have been a backlash after the Sunday Times and BBC Panorama investigations of Fifa but could not comprehend that England had only secured two votes.
His letter to the FA added: "I am well aware that some of the UK media coverage could have upset some of the Fifa executive committee.
"We have a free press in our country and we all have to live with adverse comment from time to time.
"But there is no doubt that English football benefits from the media coverage that it receives and would have been given great coverage if we had brought the World Cup to England.
"I have no issue with Russia's winning bid. I am sure they will put on a great World Cup and I have congratulated them.
"We were equal top of Fifa's own technical assessment of the four bids. We were top of an independent assessment of the best commercial bids and our presentation on Thursday was widely acclaimed as the best of the 2018 and 2022 bids.
"Against this background, I am struggling to understand how we only achieved two votes. It is difficult to believe that the voting was an objective process.
"On top of that, Prince William, the Prime Minister and other members of our delegation were promised votes that did not materialise."
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