The FIFA chief from 1974 to 1998 died in Rio de Janeiro’s Samaritano Hospital but no further details are to be given until authorized by his family.
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The Brazilian was Sepp Blatter’s predecessor at world football’s governing body, serving from 1974 to 1998.
In 2013, he stepped down from his position as FIFA’s honorary president following an investigation into bribery allegations, with the organisation’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert describing Havelange’s conduct as “morally and ethically reproachable”.
Under his presidency, FIFA’s flagship event, the World Cup, expanded from 16 to 32 teams, turning it into one of sport’s biggest events.
But Havelange was also stalked by controversy.
His resignation from the International Olympic Committee five years ago avoided an investigation into the ISL allegations, which Havelange had denied.
The Brazilian is credited with helping transform football into a global money-making machine, but his legacy has been tarnished by serious corruption allegations. At age 20, he competed in Brazil’s swimming team in the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games. Over the next quarter century Havelange would change the way the world experienced football.
The son of a Belgian father and a Brazilian mother, Havelange was a top-notch athlete before becoming a sports administrator. In December 2011, claims emerged that he took around $50 million in bribes and a $1 million kickback as a member of the International Olympic Committee.
In his 24 years as president of the federation, he paved the way for the Confederations Cup, Women’s World Cup and a number of underage tournaments. He ran world soccer’s governing body “with a combination of autocratic rigidity and progressive reform”. But that figure increased nearly tenfold over the next two decades as Fifa’s organisational responsibilities and commercial interests grew.
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Havelange’s son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, also served as president of the CBF and oversaw two further World Cup successes in 1994 and 2002, before facing a series of allegations of corruption, which he denied.
