It was 60 years ago next month that he was invited to join the IOC during their session in the German spa town of Baden-Baden.

Although men such as then IOC President Avery Brundage exercised great influence, Havelange was perhaps the first to realise and truly exploit the political power of a sporting position.

He also became a key player in the commercialisation of major sporting events.

Havelange was still a comparatively young 47 at the time he joined the IOC.

Curiously one of his earliest IOC interventions was in defence of Judo, which had been jettisoned from the Olympic programme after its debut at Tokyo 1964.

"The decision not to include judo in 1968 has caused considerable moral and material prejudice to a modern sport." Havelange warned.

He told the IOC Session the decision had "caused immense distress to our Japanese friends."

The sport was restored from Munich 1972 onwards.

Havelange had been born Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid Havelange, a name which reflected his Belgian heritage, in 1916.

He swam 1936 for Brazil over 400 and 1500 metres freestyle at the 1936 Berlin Olympics although he did not qualify for the finals.

The Games in Berlin were held under the shadow of the Nazi regime and Hitler.

"At 19, politics did not interest anyone," Havelange claimed in an interview many years later for the football documentary History of Football.

"The organisation, transport and facilities were superb, it was a dream spectacle,"

Havelange's strength and physique saw him switch to water polo.

In 1951, he was a member of the silver medal winning Brazilian team at the inaugural Pan American Games in Buenos Aires.

In 1952 he also competed in a second Olympics at Helsinki.

By this time, Havelange was a successful lawyer and businessman, forging a career in public transport across Brazil.

He joined the Brazilian Olympic Committee and became Brazilian Sports Confederation (CBD) President in 1958,

Brazil won successive FIFA World Cups at Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962 under the umbrella of the CBD.

At the 1966 tournament in England, however, Brazil were eliminated in the group stages.

"FIFA should have more respect for us," Havelange wrote in the CBD Report. 

This also suggested the appointment of English and German referees for matches involving South American teams had been done to favour the Europeans.

He alleged that the English "gained control of the refereeing" and then "mobilised public opinion against the South American teams" in a newspaper article for the Portuguese language newspaper Diário de Notícias.

Havelange pointed out that England's Ken Dagnall officiated when Brazil lost 3-1 to Hungary and George McCabe had been in charge of the 3-1 defeat at the hands of Portugal.

Brazil's one success of the tournament, a 2-0 victory over Bulgaria was, though, refereed by West Germany's Kurt Tschenscher.

The feeling of injustice sowed seeds to be exploited by Havelange eight years later when he ran for FIFA President.

In the interim, Brazil won the 1970 World Cup in Mexico to claim the Jules Rimet Trophy outright.

Yet this came against the backdrop of a brutal military regime which controlled Brazil.

Havelange had always insisted he "did not do politics" but it was said that he travelled to around 80 countries during his campaign for the FIFA Presidency.

He was also believed to have made financial assistance available to enable delegates to travel to vote.

His opponent was the aging FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous, a former English referee, by then approaching 79 years of age and seen as paternalist by some.

Certain decisions made by FIFA unwittingly helped Havelange.

In 1973, the Soviet Union were ordered to play a World Cup play-off against Chile at a stadium in Santiago which had been used for detaining political prisoners.

It was shortly after a coup which brought right wing General Augusto Pinochet to power.

The Soviets refused and a walkover was granted to Chile.

The attitude of Rous to Africa was a particular Achilles heel.

African nations had boycotted the 1966 World Cup because of lack of representation and were only granted an automatic berth in 1970.

More seriously, FIFA had dragged its feet on the question of banning South Africa in the apartheid years.

In contrast, Havelange offered assurances that until apartheid was gone there could be no re-admittance..

He also wanted China to join FIFA.

The Havelange manifesto demanded an expansion of the World Cup to 24 teams and the introduction of a World Junior Championship.

There was to be an extension of club competitions in Asia and Africa and grants were to be made available for the construction of large stadia.

He called for courses for officials, doctors, trainers and organisers.

A new FIFA headquarters building was "to meet all the requirements of an association as important as the FIFA."

Havelange was elected in a second ballot by 68 votes to 52.

"It has been the most political congress in my experience, there are trends growing which are not pleasing," Sir Stanley complained afterwards.

Havelange forged an alliance with German sports goods manufacturer Horst Dassler and in the early years, the skilful work of sports marketing pioneer Patrick Nally helped ensure that the promises made in the manifesto came to fruition.

The first of these was the FIFA World Youth Tournament held in 1977.

The 1978 World Cup, played in Argentina was the last contested by only 16 teams.

A military junta had seized power in the country but Havelange stood alongside President Jorge Videla at the Opening Ceremony.

He paid tribute to the work which had gone into "this magnificent spectacle" and told the crowd, "the competition would contribute to peace and understanding,"

Admiral Carlos Lacoste, the junta member who had taken charge of the tournament organisation, was later elected to FIFA under Havelange's Presidency.

In 1982, the World Cup was expanded to 24 teams.

Havelange was also instrumental in the establishment of International Sport and Leisure (ISL), a marketing giant in Switzerland which enjoyed close ties with the Olympic Movement and international athletics.

Meanwhile, Havelange travelled extensively to meet world leaders in his his role.

In one year, Havelange recounted three audiences with the Pope and many other meetings with high-ranking officials.

"Do you think a head of state will spare that much time for just anyone?" Havelange asked. "That’s respect, I can talk to any President, but they will be talking to a President too on an equal basis,” 

There was one high ranking personality with whom relations were not so cordial.

In late 1993, Havelange banned Pelé from taking an official part in the draw for the1994 FIFA World Cup to be held in the United States.

Pelé had accused Havelange's then son-in-law and Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) President Ricardo Teixeira of corruption following a dispute over television rights.

"I think it's a very drastic decision," veteran Camerooon striker Roger Milla said. 

"It makes all of us very sad to hear about this."

Havelange was also widely criticised in the media for his actions.

When Havelange finally stood down in 1998, his long time lieutenant and FIFA Secretary Sepp Blatter succeeded him.

Yet Havelange continued to remain an influential figure in Olympic circles.

By the time of  the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, he was 93, but still had the erect bearing of a much younger man as officials gathered to choose a host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"I invite you all to come to my city, to honour the Games, on my 100th birthday, I ask you to join me to realise this dream," Havelange said during the presentation for Rio 2016.

Yet within two years, Havelange abruptly disappeared from the sporting scene.

The fallout of revelations about ISL revealed financial impropriety on a massive scale and implicated Havelange and a number of other leading sports figures.

In 2011, he resigned from the IOC as an ethics investigation began and in 2013 stood down as Honorary FIFA President.

A stadium used by the Botafogo football club had been named in his honour.

It had been chosen to host athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympics but Brazilian councillors proposed that the name be changed.

"The name João Havelange is today linked to fraud investigations and scandals at FIFA," Renato Cinco, one of the councillors behind the proposed legislation, said.

"It doesn't make sense for a city which is going to host the World Cup and Olympic Games to have the name of its stadium with this reference."

By a twist of fate, one of those elected to the IOC alongside Havelange back in 1963 had been Switzerland's Marc Hodler, the man who opened the floodgates on financial corruption prompting the Salt Lake City scandal in 1998,

Havelange did turn 100 in May 2016,  but died during the Olympics.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and Brazilian flags will be kept at half mast," Rio 2016 Communications Director Mario Andrada said.

Amongst the fulsome tributes was a newspaper advert placed by Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman, later also found to be guilty of financial irregularities and given a custodial sentence.