Former Fifa president Joao Havelange has died in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 100.
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Havelange engineered the expansion of the World Cup from 16 to 32 teams but will be more significantly remembered for overseeing a culture of self-reward which continues to see football’s world governing body dogged by corruption scandals.
The former president of the world football governing body, an Olympic swimmer and water polo player for Brazil, had been in hospital recently with respiratory problems.
Brazilian interim president Michel Temer called Havelange one of the “important leaders” of world sport.
Havelange represented Brazil in swimming at the 1936 Olympics – the year he qualified as a lawyer – before his election to the IOC.
NetEase Sports’ website reported the sad news with bald, black Chinese font, mentioning football may not be the first sport of the world without his contribution in FIFA’s reform. FIFA’s membership expanded by almost one-third, to more than 200 nations and territories, under Havelange.
While building Federation Internationale de Football Association into a global undertaking with a turnover today of billions of dollars, the authoritarian Havelange also stood in the shadow of corruption and faced criticism for cooperating with dictatorial regimes including 1978 World Cup hosts Argentina.
Former President of the Brazilian Soccer Confederation, Ricardo Teixeira (R), greets Anna Maria Herm …
But he also created a culture of favors and privileges for top officials that laid the foundation for his successor Sepp Blatter’s corruption-tarnished reign.
Athletes competing in the Rio Games race in a stadium which – despite complaints from some quarters – still bears the name: Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium.
Prior to that, Havelange resigned in December 2011 as a member of the International Olympic Committee just days before its leadership was expected to suspend him and rule on claims that he took a $1 million kickback.
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In 2013, FIFA’s ethics court said he was responsible for financial wrongdoing, but he was never punished.
