(REUTERS) – Former FIFA president Joao Havelange has been moved back into intensive care where he was reported to be in a serious condition yesterday.
The 95-year-old Brazilian, who headed FIFA for 24 years, has been in hospital for three weeks suffering from septic arthritis in his right ankle. The Samaritano Hospital in Rio de Janeiro said in a statement that Havelange, moved out of intensive care last week, had developed breathing and cardiac problems.
“During the night, the patient had to be moved back to the coronary unit,” said the hospital. “The clinical condition of the FIFA honorary president is serious.”
Havelange, a former Olympic swimmer, was FIFA president from 1974 to 1998 when he was replaced by Sepp Blatter, the current president.
He was an International Olympic Committee member until December when he quit his position days before an ethics hearing into his conduct during his FIFA presidency.
He was under an IOC investigation for his links to FIFA’s former marketing agency International Sport and Leisure which went bankrupt in 2001 with debts of around £189 million.
A BBC Panorama television programme alleged in 2010 that Havelange had accepted money from ISL for granting lucrative World Cup contracts.