FIFA’s Havelange dies aged 100
Print Edition
JOAO Havelange, who as president of FIFA for two decades transformed soccer’s governing body into a multibillion-dollar business and a hotbed for subsequent corruption that damaged its reputation, has died. He was 100.
The Samaritano Hospital in Rio de Janeiro said he died early yesterday, while Rio was hosting the Olympic Games. In 2009, Havelange led off Rio’s bid presentation to the IOC in Copenhagen by inviting the members to vote to “join me in celebrating my 100th birthday” at the 2016 Games in Brazil.
Havelange expanded the World Cup from 16 to 32 teams and made it one of sport’s most important events. He organized six World Cups as FIFA president from 1974 to 1998, when Sepp Blatter replaced him.
With more cash for football also came widespread financial wrongdoing by its top officials, including Havelange. In 2013, FIFA ethics court judge Joachim Eckert said Havelange’s conduct had been “morally and ethically reproachable”.
Havelange was never punished. He was allowed to resign his honorary presidency of FIFA in 2013.
Prior to that, Havelange also resigned in December 2011 as a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Three of FIFA’s most notorious officials — his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira, Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner — joined FIFA’s executive committee during Havelange’s reign. All three were subsequently swept up in corruption investigations by Swiss and US authorities last year that also ended Blatter’s 17-year presidency.
FIFA was a small body with about a dozen employees when Havelange took over at its Zurich headquarters in 1974.
“I found an old house and US$20 in the kitty,” Havelange told FIFA’s website. “On the day I departed 24 years later, I left property and contracts worth over US$4 billion. Not too bad, I’d say.”
He was re-elected president six times. FIFA’s membership expanded by nearly one-third, to more than 200 nations and territories.
The son of a Belgian father and a Brazilian mother, Havelange was a top-notch athlete before becoming a sports administrator. He swam for Brazil at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and played on its water polo team at the Helsinki Games in 1952. He was the first non-European head of FIFA and its longest serving president, stepping down at age 82.
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