Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒuˈɐ̃w aviˈlɐ̃ʒi], French: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi fostɛ̃ ɡɔdfʁwa də avlɑ̃ʒ]; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA's history, behind that of Jules Rimet. He received the title of honorary president when leaving office, but resigned in April 2013. He was preceded by Stanley Rous and succeeded by Sepp Blatter. Havelange served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1963 to 2011. He was the longest-serving active member upon his resignation. In July 2012, a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took more than 41 million Swiss francs (£37M) in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights.
Early life, professional and Olympic career
Havelange was born on 8 May 1916, in Rio de Janeiro, to an affluent family coming from Belgium; his father, Faustin Havelange, had immigrated to Brazil from Liège, Belgium, worked as an arms dealer, and owned a large estate that stretched along the present-day districts of Laranjeiras, Cosme Velho and Santa Teresa. An excellent student at school, Havelange was accepted to the prestigious Law School of Fluminense Federal University, from which he graduated at the age of 24 with a BA in law. He worked as a legal advisor for bus company Auto Viação Jabaquara, and became president-director of another bus company, Viação Cometa S/A. He was also senior partner at chemical and metallurgical company Orwec Química e Metallurgia Ltda.
Interested in sports since his childhood years, at the age of 20 Havelange competed as a swimmer at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but failed to go beyond the heats of the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle events. He was also part of the Brazilian team that tied for 13th in water polo at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He was the chef de mission of the Brazilian delegation at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne.
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 was president of the Confederation from 1958 to 1973.
In 1974, Havelange defeated Englishman Stanley Rous for the presidency of FIFA, the governing body of world association football. Havelange became the first (and, to date, only) non-European to hold the post. He lobbied in 86 different countries for the presidency, often accompanied by Pelé. Sports marketer Patrick Nally said that "Havelange had seen the future...he knew that if he became the president of the only federation already running its own high-profile world championship then he would enjoy huge economic power". Appealing to developing nations, Havelange promised an expanded World Cup, and a youth World Cup that they might be able to host.
Threatened by Havelange's international campaign for the presidency, Rous asked Horst Dassler, then managing Adidas' French subsidiary to help his campaign. 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.
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. Supported by sports marketer Patrick Nally, Havelange enlisted Adidas and Coca-Cola as primary sponsors of FIFA tournaments.
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"
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. 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. 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.
Links with Carlos Lacoste and Castor de Andrade
The head of the Argentina's 1978 FIFA World Cup organizing committee, Omar Actis, was assassinated in August 1976. FIFA chose Argentina to host the 1978 FIFA World Cup on July 6, 1966, during a meeting in London, England—a full decade before the military coup of 1976. 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 World Cup in Argentina and was cousin of former de facto president Jorge Rafael Videla. Democratic rule was restored to Argentina in 1983 and Lacoste was investigated for corruption.
Havelange was also an associate of Brazilian criminal Castor de Andrade, head of an illegal jogo do bicho operation. 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". "I authorize Castor de Andrade to use this statement as he deems appropriate". Police investigating Andrade found this reference and evidence that Andrade had provided Havelange with a box at the Rio Carnival.
Association with Pelé and Ricardo Teixeira
Havelange's daughter, Lucia, was married to the Brazilian football administrator Ricardo Teixeira for 30 years. They divorced in 1997. Teixeira was President of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) between 1989 and 2012. A financier, Teixeira had no previous experience of sports administration.
In 1993, angry when his television company was rejected in a contest for domestic rights, Brazilian footballer Pelé accused Teixeira of corruption, resulting in an eight-year feud between Pelé and Havelange. 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. 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 North American, Central 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.
As Brazilian Minister for Sports, Pelé drafted legislation approved as the Pelé law in December 1997 by the lower house of the Brazilian congress. Football clubs had to become companies within two years, giving players greater freedom of contract and limiting the power of the Brazilian Football Confederation. Havelange threatened to ban Brazil from the 1998 World Cup if the law passed.