Joao Havelange dead: Former Fifa president dies at the age of 100

havelange served as Fifa president from 1974 until his resignation in 1998

Joao Havelange has died at the age of 100 (Getty)

Former Fifa president Joao Havelange has died at the age of 100.

Havelange served as the head of football’s world governing body from 1974 until 1998, when he handed the reins over to Sepp Blatter. Havelange was praised for expanding football into the global game that it is today, having helped take the sport to the likes of Africa and Asia.

He resigned in 1998 following an investigation into allegations that he had accepted bribes in order to grant lucrative contracts at various World Cups to the marketing company ISL, although he remained honorary president of Fifa until 2013.

Havelange was also a member of the International Olympic Committee, although he resigned from that role in December 2011 due to a separate investigation into his relationship with ISL. Havelange served as the president of the Brazilian football confederation before becoming Fifa president, with the South American country winning the World Cup under his reign in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Havelange’s son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, also served as president of the CBF and oversaw two further World Cup successes in 1994 and 2002, before facing a series of allegations of corruption, which he denied. Teixeira resigned from his role in 2012, citing medical reasons.

Sepp Blatter served as general secretary under Havelange before the Swiss replaced him in 1998 (Getty)

Following his resignation, Havelange was investigated over bribery allegations. Both he and Texeira agreed to repay CHF500,000 [£400,000] and CHF2.5m [£2m] respectively to drop an investigation into alleged embezzlement after being accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes in order to retain the Swiss marketing agency International Sport and Leisure [ISL] as Fifa’s sole official marketer, and in April 2013 Havelange was investigated again on bribery allegations.

He was admitted to hospital a year later with a lung infection, and again in November 2015 with respiratory problems/

The shamed former Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, served as Fifa general secretary under Havelange for 17 years before replacing him in 1998.