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Havelange resigns as honorary FIFA president in kickbacks scandal

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FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, left, symbolically launches the construction work for the new FIFA museum in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday, April 25, 2013. FIFA says its US dollar 200 million museum will now be created downtown in its home city of Zurich. Construction work has started in the Enge district and the museum is scheduled to open in April or May 2015. (AP Photo/Keystone, Steffen Schmidt)

ZURICH – Joao Havelange has resigned as honorary FIFA president in a World Cup bribery scandal.

FIFA ethics court judge Joachim Eckert says in a ruling published today by FIFA that Havelange resigned April 18.

Eckert cleared current FIFA president Sepp Blatter of wrongdoing in the case, which involved millions of dollars in kickbacks from World Cup contracts marketed by now-defunct agency ISL.

Eckert says “no further proceedings related to the ISL matter are warranted against any other football official.”

The German judge notes that Nicolas Leoz resigned as South America’s football president last week.

Havelange, who was FIFA president from 1974-98, and his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira received tens of millions of dollars in improper payments before ISL collapsed in 2001.

Eckert says this pre-dated FIFA’s current ethics code.

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