Havelange stood down after being targeted in the findings of an Ethics Committee set up by FIFA to investigate a scandal involving the now bankrupt Swiss-based marketing agency ISL and World Cup television rights.

Havelange, now 96 and in poor health, is alleged to have taken improper payments during his time serving as FIFA’s seventh president between 1974 and 1998.

His successor, Sepp Blatter, is said to have known about one payment to ISL destined for Havelange of 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.6 million), with the report concluding that Blatter’s conduct was “clumsy” but not “criminal”.