Former Fifa president Joao Havelange has died in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 100.
Brazilian Havelange was at the head of world football’s governing body between 1974 and 1998 as it seventh president and is currently the only non-European to have served in the position.
He was also an International Olympic Committee member from 1963 until 2011, when he resigned due to ill health.
During his time as Fifa president Havelange saw the World Cup expand from 16 teams, eight of whom were non-European, to 32 by 1998, with participation from Africa, Asia and north America particularly improved.
Fifa’s financial power greatly increased under Havelange, by 1998 sales for the TV rights for the following three World Cups were worth over £1.3billion.
The Women’s World Cup, Confederations Cup, U-17 and U-20 World Cups were all introduced during Havelange’s Fifa tenure.
However he found himself implicated in the corruption scandal that has engulfed Fifa over recent years and was forced to resign his honorary presidency in April 2013 after a report by Hans-Joachim Eckert ruled that he had taken bribes in the 1990s.
Havelange won a bronze medal in water polo at the 1951 Pan American Games. In 2007 a stadium built to host the event was named in his honour in his home town of Rio.
