Havelange maradona biography

Joao Havelange, the former Fifa president who has died at his home in Rio de Janeiro aged , could be regarded as the unlikely godfather of African football. He famously owed the developing world for his presidential election in - and despite the allegations of corruption that mired his career towards the end of his life, he is credited with huge globalisation of the game.

The canny sports administrator had done his maths on the voting system, realising that he needed to court Africa and Asia in order to win - an insight lost on his main rival in the leadership contest for football's world governing body. The Brazilian came to power on the back of African votes - which then accounted for nearly a third of the total - primarily because his predecessor, Englishman Stanley Rous, had alienated the continent through his unremitting support for apartheid South Africa.

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Cameroon became the first African nation to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in , following Havelange's drive to expand the tournament. His standing was greatly boosted by the three World Cups Brazil won under his control as Brazilian Sports Confederation president, and the former Olympian adroitly exploited the issue and pledged to kick out South Africa if he took control.

There were other promises to the continent as well: An expanded World Cup, new youth tournaments and, among others, developmental help. With Rous out of the way, Havelange dealt with South Africa fairly swiftly, expelling the country from Fifa in , a ban which lasted until , as the end of apartheid neared. He also introduced junior tournaments - handing Tunisia the first hosting rights, in , for what is called the Under World Cup today.

The World Cup in South Africa in , the first to be held on the continent, may never have happened without Havelange. Eight years later, he ensured Africa had the same representation as Europe and South America in the Under World Cup, in contrast to the senior World Cup, as the tournament launched in He was slightly hamstrung with his World Cup offer despite overseeing vast global expansion - having partnered with Horst Dassler, the son of the Adidas founder and the father of sports sponsorship.

With the help of improving television broadcast technology and football's hugely attractive lure for sponsors, the pair greatly enhanced football's global reach, Fifa's coffers and - as has been well documented - those of Havelange too. Africa was not a huge market for sponsors at the time though and had to patiently wait for its World Cup places to increase from one to two in , when the finals expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

In the interim, Havelange offered a host of developmental programmes and increased funding.