Havelange, who swam every morning before breakfast well into his 90s, invited International Olympic Committee members in 2009, in leading Rio de Janeiro’s bid presentation to the IOC, to join them in celebrating his 100th birthday at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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Havelange had visited 186 different countries, had crossed the border between the two Germanies during the Cold War by vehicle and lead FIFA for more than two decades (1974-98) during the transformation of football into a multi-billion-dollar industry.
He was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1963 until he quit in 2011 through ill-health.
Havelange, who spent the last month of his life in hospital being treated for pneumonia, engineered the expansion of the World Cup from 16 to 32 teams, but will be more remembered for overseeing a culture of greed and sleaze that continues to dog football’s world governing body.
“Approaching FIFA as a business, he transformed it into one of the largest sports organizations in the world”. All three were subsequently swept up in corruption investigations by Swiss and USA authorities last year that also brought the end of Blatter’s 17-year presidency.
Blatter on Tuesday hailed his predecessor as the man who brought football to the world.
He represented Brazil in swimming at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and again in Helsinki in 1952, where he was on the water polo team.
Former England striker Gary Lineker was quick to highlight corruption after news of Havelange’s death broke.
It was Havelange who initiated the period of great disputes for the FIFA Presidency.
Havelange, whose name is one of those used for the track and field stadium for the Rio Games (Estádio Olímpico João Havelange), played a key role in bringing the Olympics to his country. Officially he left for health reasons, but his departure was two days before he was due to face an ethics investigation into allegations he had taken bribes to funnel contracts to a marketing company called ISL.
His son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, took over at the CBF for two more World Cup trophies in 1994 and 2002 but also faced allegations of irregularities, which he denied, and he resigned for medical reasons in 2012 after 23 years as president.
A report by Federation Internationale de Football Association ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert described his behavior as “morally and ethically reproachable”.
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In 2013, FIFA’s ethics court said he was responsible for financial wrongdoing, but he was never punished.
