João Havelange
João Havelange | |
---|---|
President of FIFA | |
In office 8 May 1974 – 8 June 1998 | |
Preceded by | Stanley Rous |
Succeeded by | Sepp Blatter |
Personal details | |
Born | Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid de Havelange 8 May 1916 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Died | 16 August 2016 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | (aged 100)
Resting place | Cemitério São João Batista, Rio de Janeiro |
Alma mater | Fluminense Federal University |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Signature | |
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Men's Water polo | ||
Pan American Games | ||
1951 Buenos Aires | Team |
Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (Brazilian Portuguese:
Early life, professional and Olympic career
Havelange was born on 8 May 1916, in
Interested in sports since his childhood years, at the age of 20 Havelange competed as a
Sports administrator
As President of the Metropolitan Swimming Federation in Brazil, Havelange became a member of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and joined the Union Cycliste Internationale in 1958. After becoming vice-president of the Brazilian Sports Confederation, he served as President of the Confederation from 1958 to 1973.[9]
President of FIFA (1974–98)
In 1974 Havelange defeated Englishman
Threatened by Havelange's international campaign for the presidency, Rous asked Horst Dassler, then managing Adidas' French subsidiary to help his campaign.[11] Dassler engaged in intense lobbying of the delegates at the 39th FIFA Congress, where the vote was to be held. The election went to a second round, and Havelange won by sixteen votes.[11]
Havelange did not have sufficient money to fund his programme for FIFA, so he sought financial support from Dassler, who wished to supply Adidas branded equipment to the national federations.[11] Supported by sports marketer Patrick Nally, Havelange enlisted Adidas and Coca-Cola as primary sponsors of FIFA tournaments.[12]
The support of commercial organizations was crucial to the future of Havelange and FIFA, and provided a model for global sporting federations. Nally stated that:
"The money we brought into FIFA through Coke was clearly changing the face of the federation. Havelange was building a new international headquarters in Zurich, appointing professional full-time staff and PR and finance people. FIFA was showing the way. Other federations were watching closely. Many others were eager to follow and quick to fall into the hands of Horst and myself"[11]
The sale of television rights increased greatly under Havelange's leadership. In 1987 the European rights to the next three FIFA World Cups were sold for $440 million, the non-United States rights for the three tournaments from 1998 sold for $2.2 billion.[13] Under Havelange's presidency the FIFA World Cup expanded from 16 to 32 teams, with Havelange overseeing six world cups during his time in office.[14] The FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup and FIFA Women's World Cup were all introduced under his tenure.[14]
Associates Lacoste and de Andrade
The head of the Argentina's 1978 FIFA World Cup organizing committee, Omar Actis, was assassinated in August 1976. Awarded the World Cup in 1966, Argentina did little to prepare for the event before the 1976 Argentine coup d'état that saw a military junta rule the country. In 1982 Carlos Lacoste, former de facto President of Argentina during the junta, became vice-president of FIFA. Lacoste had previously been head of the organising committee for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina and was cousin of de facto President Jorge Rafael Videla. Democratic rule was restored to Argentina in 1983 and Lacoste was investigated for corruption.[15]
Havelange was also an associate of Brazilian criminal Castor de Andrade, head of an illegal gambling association.[16] Andrade was sentenced to six years in prison in 1994 for racketeering. Havelange wrote a character reference for Andrade in 1987 as "amiable and pleasant ... predominant feature .. loyalty .. good family man, a devoted friend, and is admired as a sports administrator".[17] "I authorize Castor de Andrade to use this statement as he deems appropriate".[16] Police investigating Andrade found this reference and evidence that Andrade had provided Havelange with a box at the Rio Carnival.[16]
Associates Pelé and Teixeira
Havelange's daughter, Lucia, was married to the Brazilian football administrator Ricardo Teixeira for 30 years. They divorced in 1997.[14] Teixeira was President of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) between 1989 and 2012. A financier, Teixeira had no previous experience of sports administration.[18]
In 1993, angry when his television company was rejected in a contest for domestic rights,[19] Brazilian footballer Pelé accused Teixeira of corruption, resulting in an eight-year feud between Pelé and Havelange.[18] Consequently, Havelange banned Pelé from the draw for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in Las Vegas. Criticisms over the ban were perceived to have negatively affected Havelange's chances of re-election as FIFA President in 1994.[19] As in 1974, Havelange embarked on an intense lobbying mission, with the aim of securing votes from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Central American, North American and Caribbean Football Confederation (CONCACAF). The loyalty of these "third world" football federations was rewarded by the expansion of the World Cup from 24 to 32 teams for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. As a result of the expansion and allocation of places, tension grew between the governing body of European football (UEFA) and the FIFA leadership.[20]
As Brazilian Minister for Sports, Pelé drafted legislation approved as the
FIFA Presidential elections
At the 1994 meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee in New York, Havelange was criticized for his allocation of appointments to FIFA's standing committees. Havelange postponed a discussion on the appointments, distributed a list with the new composition of the committees, and declared the list passed without a vote.
Johansson said "The dumbest thing about breaking the agreement is that we're faced with an expensive competition. We would be better off spending the money on real soccer." Johansson criticized Havelange's financial decisions and "undemocratic behaviour."
Corruption
In 1999
Collapse of ISL
Disagreements between Nally and Dassler led to the foundation of
In May 2006 British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings' book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals implicated Havelange in the collapse of ISL, and revealed that some football officials were urged to secretly repay the commissions they received.[26] In 2011 Jennings told Brazil's Senate that Havelange may have amassed $50 million or more in bribes, through a front company called Sicuretta.[27]
An IOC ethics committee was announced in June 2011 to investigate claims that Havelange received a bribe of $1 million in connection with ISL.
In July 2012, after protracted court proceedings, Havelange and Teixeira were named as beneficiaries of bribes from ISL. A prosecutor in the canton of Zug revealed a document saying that, from 1992 to 2000, Havelange and Teixeira were paid 41m CHF by ISL.[5] Teixeira had resigned from FIFA in March 2012.[31] In 2012 Sepp Blatter said that at the time of this payment, commercial bribery was not a crime in Switzerland.[5] In 1997, as President of FIFA, Havelange had granted ISL FIFA's exclusive marketing rights, and exclusive TV and radio rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups in 1998. ISL paid FIFA 200m CHF for the marketing rights and $1.4 billion for the TV rights. After ISL's bankruptcy, its liquidators examined all payments made by the company.[5]
FIFA involvement
FIFA, under the presidency of Sepp Blatter, was found to have known about the bribes, yet argued it did not need to have the money repaid. Prosecutions were mounted for alleged embezzlement against Havelange and Teixeira, but were stopped in May 2010, after Havelange and Texeira repaid CHF500,000 and CHF2.5m respectively.[5] The repayments were considered reasonable, because bribes paid before 1995 were outside the statute of limitations and Havelange was now over 90 years old.[5] The prosecutor also believed that Havelange and Teixeira were guilty of criminal breaches of their duties to serve FIFA as senior executives.[5] Following the release of the report, Blatter vowed to strip Havelange of his honorary presidency at the next FIFA Congress.[32]
Health issues and death
In March and April 2012 Havelange was hospitalized for a seriously infected right ankle in Rio de Janeiro, which necessitated a period in intensive care.[33][34][35] In April 2013 he resigned from his position as FIFA's Honorary President for "health and personal reasons".[3] Havelange was again admitted to hospital in June 2014, for a lung infection, and in November 2015 with respiratory problems.[36][37] He died at 5:00 BRT on 16 August 2016 at the age of 100 in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Summer Olympics which were being held there.[38][39][40]
Assessment
Writing in June 1998, as Havelange was leaving FIFA, and before the eruption of most of the controversies surrounding him, The New York Times commented on Havelange's leadership:
"[Havelange] ran FIFA, as the world soccer federation is known, with a combination of autocratic rigidity and progressive reform. In 24 years as FIFA's president, Havelange was credited with building the Zurich-based organization from a fledgling operation in a private residence to a worldwide force that oversees a $250 billion-a-year international industry. With Blatter working by his side for 17 years and implementing his programs as FIFA's general secretary, Havelange increased the size of the World Cup from 16 to 32 teams, introduced a World Cup for women, gained a place for women's soccer in the Summer Olympics and built up marketing and television rights fees to the point that each of FIFA's 204 national federations will receive $1 million from the 1998 World Cup."
— The New York Times, [41]
Honors
Havelange was elected honorary president of FIFA in 1998,[2] but resigned in 2013.[3] On August 24, 2006, Havelange was named honorary Vice President of the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation (CBDG) for his support in the development of winter sports in Brazil.[42]
Awards
- Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (France)[43]
- Order of Special Merit in Sports (Brazil)[44]
- Commander of the Cavaliers of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (Portugal)[44]
- Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain)[44]
Eponyms
The following have been named after Havelange in his honor for his important contributions.
- The 2000 Vasco da Gama, and organized by Clube dos 13 (an association of the Brazilian most traditional clubs), was called Copa João Havelange.
- A stadium built for the On 10 February 2017, the stadium was renamed Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos.
- The Estádio Parque do Sabiá's former name[46]
- Trinidad's Dr. João Havelange Centre of Excellence
References
- Estadão– Acervo.
- ^ ISBN 85-88651-01-7.
- ^ a b c "Resigns Honorary Presidency". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- ^ "Joao Havelange resigns from IOC". BBC News Online. 4 December 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g Conn, David (12 July 2012). "Sepp Blatter faces calls to step down at Fifa over 'bribery cover-up'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ^ a b c "João Havelange" (in Portuguese). Netsaber. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
- ^ "João Havelange" (in Portuguese). Guia dos Curiosos. Retrieved 2 July 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "João Havelange profile". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ "Joao Havelange: The swimmer who revolutionised World Football". MyLaw/The Sports Capmus. 7 June 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4090-8691-8. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56171-199-4. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ISBN 9781598843002.
- ^ "The paymasters". The Economist. 4 June 1998. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
- ^ a b c "Brazil football boss Ricardo Teixeira takes sick leave". BBC News Online. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-5126-2. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-904744-35-1. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ISBN 9780771041396. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7475-6179-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7146-4968-9. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ISBN 9780714649689.
- ^ "Facing football's bald facts". The Economist. 18 December 1997. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Uefa chief backs Germany". BBC News Online. 22 March 1998. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-00-720869-2.
- ^ a b "Taking advantage". CNN. 22 January 1998. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Bond, David (13 March 2008). "The £66m 'bribe' shadow hanging over Fifa". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Livro acusa cartolas brasileiros" (in Portuguese). O Estado de S. Paulo. 13 May 2006. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
- ^ "Corrupt Fifa stinks says Jennings". BBC News.
- ^ a b Scott, Matt (16 June 2011). "Fifa's João Havelange faces IOC inquiry into £610,000 bung allegation". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Gibson, Owen (4 December 2011). "João Havelange resigns from International Olympic Committee". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ "Sums of bribes for top FIFA officials exposed at hearing in Brazil". Play the Game. 2 November 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ "Teixeira resigns FIFA". Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- ^ "Fifa president Sepp Blatter plans to strip disgraced Joao Havelange of honorary president title". London: The Telegraph. 15 July 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ^ "Former Fifa president João Havelange has serious bacterial infection". The Guardian. London. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ "Havelange condition still serious, says hospital". Reuters. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ "Joao Havelange to leave ICU". ESPN. 3 April 2012. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
- ^ "Brazil: Former Fifa president Joao Havelange in hospital". London: BBC News Online. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- ^ "Fifa's former president João Havelange admitted to hospital in Brazil". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
- ^ "Ex-presidente da Fifa, João Havelange morre aos 100 anos no Rio de Janeiro" (in Portuguese). UOL. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Joao Havelange: Former Fifa president and IOC member dies aged 100". BBC Sport. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "João Havelange, president of Fifa from 1974 to 1998, dies aged 100". Guardian. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ Longman, Jere (9 June 1998). "WORLD CUP '98; U.S. Ally Elected to Head World Soccer Body". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "João Havelange (FIFA) nomeado vice presidente da CDBG" (in Portuguese). Brazilian Ice Sports Federation. 24 August 2006. Archived from the original on 7 April 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
- ^ Shaw, Phil (17 August 2016). "Joao Havelange obituary: Former Fifa president and IOC member". The Independent. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
- ^ ISBN 9781408181379.
- ^ "Sport and Venues" (PDF). Rio 2016 Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
- ^ "Cidade mineira muda nome de estádio e retira homenagem a João Havelange". Globo.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 18 August 2016.