Former President Joao Havelange and his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took multi-million dollar bribes on World Cup deals, Swiss prosecutors said in a legal document released on Wednesday, dealing a fresh blow to world soccer’s ruling body.
The 96-year-old Brazilian – who was FIFA president for 24 years before Sepp Blatter took the role in 1998 – pocketed at least 1.5million Swiss francs, while FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira at least 12.74million Swiss francs in payments from World Cup marketing partner ISL.
FIFA’s discredited Swiss-based marketing partner collapsed in 2001 with debts of around $300 million.
Havelange was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Rio de Janeiro and to South America for the first time when in 2009 the IOC elected the city as the 2016 host.
He is the former father-in-law of Teixeira, who recently resigned as head of Brazilian football and as chief of Brazil’s organising committee for the 2014 World Cup following a spate of corruption allegations.