Warner also described Havelange, who passed away at a Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, as the president who saved football from “ignominy” and transformed it into the lovely game. He served as the president of football’s governing body between 1974 and 1998.
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As Fifa president he led the World Cup’s expansion from 16 to 32 teams, with six competitions held under his tenure.
Havelange also launched a wave of new tournaments, notably the world championships at Under-17 and Under-20 level in the late 1980s and the Fifa Confederations Cup and Fifa Women’s World Cup at the start of the 1990s.
Joseph Blatter, who was FIFA secretary general and succeeded Havelange, was seen as the Brazilian’s protege and has himself been mired in the scandals which have rocked the football ruling body.
Havelange’s reputation took a nosedive in 2011 when, at the age of 96, he was forced to resign from the IOC.
Later exposed for bribery and corruption, and known to consort with convicted criminals and military dictators, Havelange was too powerful and well-connected to ever be punished or truly answer for any of his wrongdoing – he rubbed shoulders with presidents, royalty, and popes. He called on International Olympic Committee members at the host city vote in 2009 to “join me in celebrating my 100th birthday'” at the Rio Olympics.
Blatter was subsequently at the centre of a more recent corruption scandal, which saw his 17-year reign at the head of Federation Internationale de Football Association ended after the organisation’s ethics committee banned him for eight years.
In 2015, several of the sport’s officials, who formed FIFA’s leadership group during Havelange’s reign, were named among those charged in a sprawling US Justice Department indictment, which alleged more than two decades of corruption in soccer.
The 80-year-old Swiss, however, wanted to reflect on his close relationship with Havelange rather than pass comment on how history would judge him.
“Thanks to Joao Havelange, football is the world’s leading sport – not only from a social, cultural and economic perspective, but also in terms of its political impact”.
For better or worse, much of what makes soccer what it is today- from its unmatched popularity around the globe to its rapacious commercialization- can be attributed to former FIFA President João Havelange.
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When Havelange was elected president, Fifa’s Zurich headquarters housed just 12 staff members. “The only country I never visited was Afghanistan, because they wouldn’t let me in”. Havelange had a doctorate in law and represented his country as a swimmer at the Berlin Olympics in 1930 and at Helsinki in 1952.
