A recent spell as an in-patient was never likely to stop Joao Havelange from fulfilling a planned trip to the FIFA World Cup™ in Germany this summer. The Brazilian had a new heart pacemaker fitted at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Rio de Janeiro on 10 April, but FIFA's Honorary President has now fully recovered and today celebrates his 90th birthday in Paris.

This giant among sports administrators will spend a quiet day by the River Seine with his wife Anna Maria, daughter Lucia, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A man whose sports career encompassed Olympic appearances as a swimmer in 1936 and a water polo player in 1952, Havelange oversaw FIFA's modernisation and growth into one of the world's largest single-sport federations with 207 member associations. By way of comparison, the United Nations lists 191 member states.

Baptised Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid de Havelange, the son of a Belgian expatriate witnessed his first FIFA World Cup as a fan, but following Brazil's 2-1 defeat in the decisive final match against Uruguay in 1950, he made a firm promise: "If I become President, the trophy will come home to my country."

Momentous change at FIFA
In 1958, at the age of 42, the successful entrepreneur became head of the Confederacao Brasileira de Desportos, the predecessor to the country's football federation of today. In the same year, Pele and Co claimed the world crown in Sweden, an achievement they would follow up in 1962 in Chile, and then in 1970 in Mexico. Inevitably, Brazil's sporting success helped raise Havelange's profile and popularity abroad.

Following 86 foreign trips in the space of just two years, he canvassed votes primarily from non-European nations before securing election to the FIFA Presidency on 11 June 1974 in Frankfurt ahead of the FIFA World Cup of that year. Until handing over the reins to designated successor Joseph S. Blatter on 8 June 1998, the renowned lawyer transformed an administrative office in the Zurich district of Sonnenberg into a flourishing business-oriented operation.

"When I arrived, I found an old house and $20 in the kitty," recalled the unasahmedly autocratic leader. "On the day I departed 24 years later, I left property and contracts worth over $4 billion." Under Havelange's tutelage, football became a global commodity. 
  
Countless achievements
During his six terms of office, 50 new associations joined the world governing body, the FIFA World Cup finals expanded from 16 to 32 teams, and junior, women and indoor footballers were handed their own World Championships. Havelange, however, rated China's return to the global football family in 1980 after a 25-year absence as his greatest triumph.

He did, though, prove unable to realise one significant dream, an international match between Israel and Palestine at the UNO headquarters in New York. "My biggest disappointment was the inability to find a peaceful, sports-based solution to that conflict," he admits. These days, Havelange still works regularly in his office on Avenida Rio Branco in downtown Rio, and keeps fit by swimming.

In June, he will personally witness his 14th FIFA World Cup tournament, although he secretly has one eye on the 2014 event, when Brazil could be awarded the finals thanks to the rotation principle he initially proposed. He will then be 98, and would assuredly be delighted at the chance to watch a new generation exact revenge for defeat on home soil in 1950. And how fitting it would be were Brazil to lift the trophy at the Estadio Olympic Joao Havelange, currently under construction in Rio to be ready for the 2007 Pan-American Games.