João Havelange Resigns: Honorary FIFA President Out After Bribery Scandal

João Havelange, the honorary president of soccer's governing organization, FIFA, has resigned. Havelange, born Jean-Marie Faustin Goedefroid de Havelange in Brazil, left his post of 20 years after FIFA's ethics committee claimed he and two former FIFA executive committee members received bribes.

João Havelange, 96, as well as Nicolas Leoz, 84, and Ricardo Teixeira, 65, have all resigned from the worldwide soccer organization after they were indicted by FIFA's Ethics Court of taking millions of dollars in exchange for contracts dealing with the World Cup events. The bribes were allegedly marketed through the now-defunct ISL agency which went bankrupt in 2001.

FIFA's official president, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, was exonerated of any official involvement in the bribery scandal. FIFA Judge Joachim Eckert of Germany ruled that Swiss law at the time, which reportedly governed the jurisdiction where the alleged bribes took place, was not infracted by João Havelange or his alleged co-conspirators. "However, it is clear that Havelange and Teixeira, as football (soccer) officials, should not have accepted any bribe money, and should have had to pay it back ... " Eckert's judgment said.

Teixeira was to lead the 2014 World Cup organizing committee until his resignation, and Leoz was the chair of the South American football federation during the time period in question: 1992-2000.

The Boston Herald reported that João Havelange and Teixeira received as much as $22 million in the 1990s deposited into the accounts in question. The BBC said the ISL payments totaled at least $600,000. While Blatter was not officially indicted in the bribery scandal affecting Havelange and the others, Eckert's statement did not clear the FIFA president's name entirely: "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," Eckert wrote.

João Havelange was a former Olympic swimmer at the 1936 Berlin Games in Germany, as well as a water polo player with the Brazilian team in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. With the endorsement and companionship of Brazilian soccer player Edison Arantes do Nascimento, better known as "Pele", Havelange was elected president of FIFA in 1994 and served officially until 1998. He was given the 'honorary' moniker soonafter.