Roger Burden, the acting Football Association chairman, will not take the job full‑time in protest at the "night of the long knives" in Zurich that left England's 2018 World Cup bid in tatters with only two votes. Amid signs that the catastrophic outcome for the bid could spiral into yet another crisis for the FA, which has been without a full‑time chairman since Lord Triesman was forced to resign in April, he lashed out last night at Fifa and the decision‑making process.

"I had applied for the position of chairman," said Burden in a letter to the FA board, which was expected to anoint him permanently in the role once his name had been put forward at their 22 December meeting. "I recognise that an important part of the role is liaison with Fifa, our global governing body. I am not prepared to deal with people whom I cannot trust and I have withdrawn my candidacy."

He told the Guardian: "The role entails liaising with Fifa and I want nothing more to do with them."

The 2018 chief executive, Andy Anson, also said there was no point England bidding for another World Cup until the process was fundamentally overhauled as the detail of the humiliation was laid bare.

"I would say right now, don't bother until you know that the process is going to change to allow bids like ours to win," said Anson. "Having only 22 guys voting gives them too much influence. Running two bids together was clearly a huge mistake. Everyone who had a vote and a bid clearly wanted to trade that vote for something that helped them get over the line in that campaign."

Just before they voted, the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, reminded the executive committee members of the "evils of the media" and rivals including Spain/Portugal and Russia did their best to keep the issue in the spotlight.

Anson said that several of the voters believed to have pledged their votes to Prince William and David Cameron the night before the decision was made had gone back on their word.

Although some on the bid team believe the Fifa executive did close ranks in the wake of Sunday Times and Panorama exposés of Fifa corruption, Anson said that for some it was an excuse to do the dirty on England. England had been pledged up to eight votes in the first round but polled only two.

As the backlash against Fifa and a simultaneous dissection of the English bid grew in momentum yesterday, the FA signalled that it would scrap next June's international friendly with Thailand and call time on the practice of arranging matches for political reasons.

There was also anger at the fact that millions had been spent on a process that ultimately did not matter. The bid book alone cost £3m to put together.

It is understood that the two-year campaign cost £18m – more than originally thought – and that two thirds of that total came from the FA, with the rest from sponsorship and the proposed host cities.

Like earlier matches against Trinidad & Tobago and Egypt, the friendly was supposed to help secure the vote of a Fifa executive committee member. But Worawi Makudi voted for Russia, who defeated Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium in the second round of voting.

It is understood that the FA has also scrapped plans to host Fifa's Congress in 2013, although that decision was taken some weeks ago and was unrelated to the bid.

Burden's decision not to take the FA chairmanship on a full‑time basis, which would have met with a mixed reception in any case due to the perception that he had been anointed by the Premier League, threatens to leave a power vacuum at the head of the organisation.

David Dein, the international president of England's 2018 bid whose lobbying efforts came to nought, is believed to be open-minded about applying for the role but will need to come to a decision quickly and has enemies on the FA board.

Rather than contemplating a home World Cup that would boost revenues and act as a focal point for an overhaul of the English game's dysfunctional structure, whoever takes the job will instead face a huge challenge to balance the books and a government review of its role and purpose.

The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, both members of the Zurich delegation, are planning to act after a culture, media and sport select committee review of the organisation in the wake of England's woeful World Cup exit in South Africa and the wreckage of the failed bid.

"There are things we have to put in order in our own house," said Hunt. "There are definitely issues around football governance but I don't think that was a factor in this week. This is a moment for reflection but we would have wanted to sort out football governance whatever the result. We now have the time and space to do that properly."