Ajax’s former director of football Marc Overmars has decided not to try to overturn the worldwide suspension imposed by FIFA after he admitted sending sexually inappropriate messages to colleagues.

Overmars’s spokesman Frank Neervoort told Belgian newspaper the Gazet van Antwerpen he would not be challenging the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne “in consultation with his family”.

The 50-year-old former Netherlands international player will return to his duties at Royal Antwerp in November after serving half of a two-year suspension. The other half will only be imposed if he breaks the rules again.

Overmars left Ajax in February 2022 after he admitted inappropriate behaviour towards female colleagues. The Dutch sports disciplinary body ISR imposed the two-year suspension last November, which FIFA extended across its jurisdiction to cover his current post in Antwerp.

Three weeks ago FIFA’s appeals panel upheld the ban when it rejected Overmars’s argument that the punishment was out of proportion to the severity of the offence.