"We can confirm that Mr. Damiani resigned from his position as member of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of FIFA," panel spokesman Marc Tenbuecken told AFP in an email. 

The Panama Papers indicate that Damiani's firm helped Eugenio Figueredo -- the former head of the South American football confederation who is now facing corruption charges in the United States -- set up a shell company. 

The leaked documents also show that Damiani's firm acted as a go-between for a Nevada-based company linked to two other people charged with corruption by the US: businessmen Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano of Argentina.

Damiani, who heads the prestigious Uruguayan club Penarol, has won praise for publicly crusading against corruption in scandal-tained South American football. 

He has denied wrongdoing in the Panama Papers case, while FIFA's ethics watchdog has opened a probe into the matter.