Joao Havelange Resigns as Honorary FIFA President Over Bribery Claims, Blatter Cleared of Wrongdoing

FIFA have confirmed that Joao Havelange has resigned as honorary FIFA President in the wake of the bribery scandal, but current President Sepp Blatter has been cleared of any wrongdoing and instead been accused of being ‘clumsy.’

Havelange was named as one of three people in FIFA who accepted bribes in the long-awaited report by FIFA’s ethics committee into the scandal that saw the collapse of marketing partner ISL.

Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz were the other two who received bribes and all three have now resigned from FIFA.

The report said: “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.”

Eckert also accused Blatter of handling the case in a ‘clumsy’ manner and questioned whether he should have known more.

He said: “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.

“President Blatter’s conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules.

“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.”

Blatter immediately responded to the report and was happy to be cleared of any misconduct.

Blatter commented: “”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.”

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