João Havelange, the Brazilian who ruled FIFA for more than two decades,
has resigned as honorary president of the world governing body after being
named in a report as having received bribes.
The long-awaited report by Fifa's ethics committee
into the scandal involving collapsed marketing partners ISL has named Havelange
and two former executive committee members, Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolás Leoz,
as receiving bribes. All three have since resigned from Fifa.
The report by the Fifa adjudicatory chamber chairman
Hans-Joachim Eckert also calls the current Fifa president Sepp-blatter's handling of
the scandal "clumsy" but says it did not breach ethics rules
The report states: "Mr Havelange has long held
solely an honorary position, which does not qualify him as an 'official' under
the code of ethics. Further, Mr Havelange resigned his position as honorary
president effective 18.04.2013."
Blatter immediately issued a statement welcoming the
fact that he had been cleared of misconduct. He said: "I also note with
satisfaction that this report confirms that 'president Blatter's conduct could
not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules'.
"I have no doubt that Fifa, thanks to the
governance reform process that I proposed, now has the mechanisms and means to
ensure that such an issue – which has caused untold damage to the reputation of
our institution – does not happen again."
Eckert does, nevertheless, question Blatter's role in
the scandal. He states: "It must be questioned, however, whether president
Blatter knew or should have known over the years before the bankruptcy of ISL
that ISL had made payments [bribes] to other Fifa officials.
"The report states that in 1997, Blatter
authorised the transfer of 1.5m Swiss francs (£1m) to Havelange after ISL
mistakenly sent it to Fifa. But Blatter, who was then general secretary of the
organisation when Havelange was president, told the ethics investigation
"at that time he did not suspect the payment was a commission".
"President Blatter's conduct could not be
classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules," says
the report. "The conduct of president Blatter may have been clumsy because
there could be an internal need for clarification, but this does not lead to
any criminal or ethical misconduct."
The ethics report does not state the total sum of
bribes paid but says they took place over eight years between 1992 and May
2000.
"From money that passed through the ISMM/ISL
Group, it is certain that not inconsiderable amounts were channelled to former
Fifa president Havelange and to his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira as well as to
Dr Nicolás Leoz, whereby there is no indication that any form of service was
given in return by them.
"These payments were apparently made via front
companies in order to cover up the true recipient and are to be qualified as
'commissions', known today as 'bribes'."
Court documents state Havelange, now aged 96,
received at least £1m and Teixeira at least £8.4m, and in total the pair may
have received up to £14.5m. Leoz, now aged 84, was named in court as having
received at least £80,000.
