LEAD: Reports say Havelange resigns from IOC

Dec 5, 2011, 15:40 GMT

Berlin - Former FIFA president Joao Havelange has resigned from the International Olympic Committee days before an ethics hearing into his conduct, media reports have said.

A senior official from the Olympic family told dpa Monday the reports were accurate, but the IOC said it could not confirm the resignation.

British media said 95-year-old Havelange was due to hear on Thursday the outcome of an IOC ethics committee investigation into allegations that as head of FIFA he received kickbacks from the collapsed sports marketing agency ISL.

The Brazilian, who was FIFA president from 1974 to 1998 before being replaced by Joseph Blatter, had offered his resignation for health reasons, reports said.

Two other IOC members, International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack and Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football, will have their cases considered by the IOC on Thursday.

Media reports said that with Havelange's resignation the ethics case against him is likely to be dropped.

Havelange, who represented Brazil in swimming at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and water polo at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, is the IOC's longest-serving member with 48 years of service.

He has been under investigation for the past year into allegations by BBC's Panorama that while at FIFA he received 1 million dollars from ISL.

Panorama has also named Ricardo Teixeira, Havelange's former son-in-law and head of Brazil's 2014 World Cup organizing committee, as having received payments from ISL.

Blatter had said in October he would open up the ISL files, which could reveal the names of the high-ranking FIFA officials who were accused of taking bribes from ISL. FIFA's executive committee meets in Tokyo on December 16-17.

All those alleged to have received payments have previously denied any wrongdoing.

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