Brazilian lawyer, businessman, athlete and centenarian who served as the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA’s history, behind only that of Jules Rimet. He received the title of Honorary President when leaving office, but resigned in April 2013. He succeeded Stanley Rous and was succeeded by Sepp Blatter. João 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 (£21m) in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights.
Havelange was born to an affluent family; his father, Faustin Havelange, had immigrated to Brazil from Belgium, worked as an arms dealer, and owned a large estate.
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 served as 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.
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. In April 2013 he resigned from his position as FIFA’s Honorary President for “health and personal reasons”. Havelange was again admitted to hospital in June 2014, for a lung infection, and in November 2015 with respiratory problems. He died on 16 August 2016 at the age of 100 in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Summer Olympics which were being held there.
Link to Wikipedia biography