When it came it was more symbolic than material but the resignation of João Havelange as honorary Fifa president following the publication of an internal ethics committee report served as final confirmation of his complicity in a $100m bribery scandal that has long cast a dark shadow over world football's governing body. Yet even as he did so, the president Sepp Blatter was preparing to draw a line under the affair and claiming the report exonerated him as critics lined up to question the effectiveness of the investigation. Battle lines remain drawn.
In the wake of the furore over a string of corruption cases that reached a climax two years ago, Fifa's reconfigured two-chamber ethics committee eventually said it would look into the long-running affair. The resultant report, published on Tuesday and condensed into eight pages from 4,200 pages of documents, confirms much of what was already known – and contains little new detail beyond that revealed over the last decade by investigative reporters and confirmed in papers released last year by a Swiss court.
Havelange, the 96-year-old who ruled Fifa for more than two decades, was forced to resign his honorary position after the report laid out how both he and his former son-in-law, the former Brazilian FA president Ricardo Teixeira, had taken a series of bribes over an eight-year period from the now defunct sports marketing agency ISL.
Their behaviour is described as "morally and ethically reproachable". Nicolás Leoz, the president of the South American federation Conmebol for 26 years who resigned last week due to "ill health", is also implicated. But Blatter, who is not accused of accepting bribes himself, escapes with being described as "clumsy" rather than "criminal".
The central charge that has dogged Blatter's tenure – that in March 1997, when he was still secretary general and a year before he won a bitterly contested election to become president, a bribe meant for Havelange crossed his desk – is confirmed.
But despite the fact that the $1m ISL payment meant for Havelange and routed via Fifa – a symbol of how cavalier the greasing of the wheels had become – was known to him, he insisted he had no idea it was a bribe. Hans-Joachim Eckert, Fifa's ethics committee chairman, said his behaviour was "clumsy" rather than "criminal" and broke no rules, even if it stretches credibility to suggest that the wily Blatter simply returned the money without wondering what it was for.
Blatter seized on that passage, noting "with satisfaction" that he had not broken any rules. The tone of his response, triumphant at his own exoneration rather than contrite over the fact he was a senior executive at Fifa throughout the period, speaks volumes.
The report, compiled by Eckert following an investigation by the head of its investigatory chamber, Michael Garcia, confirms that ISL systemically paid out bribes to sports officials between 1992 and May 2000. The company collapsed with debts of $300m in 2001.
"From money that passed through the ISMM/ISL Group, it is certain that not inconsiderable amounts were channelled to former Fifa president Havelange and to his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira as well as to Dr Nicolas Leoz, whereby there is no indication that any form of service was given in return by them.
"These payments were apparently made via front companies in order to cover up the true recipient and are to be qualified as 'commissions', known today as 'bribes'." Eckert's report is coy on the figures involved. But a BBC Panorama screened on the eve of the 2018 World Cup vote alleged a secret list of payments that showed at least $100m had been paid out.
Court documents stated Havelange received at least £1m and Teixeira at least £8.4m, and in total the pair may have received up to £14.5m. Leoz, now 84, was named in court as having received at least £80,000. The Panorama list suggested he had received at least $730,000.
That Panorama documentary also showed that others, including Issa Hayatou and IAAF president Lamine Diack, took money through the front company in Liechtenstein. Hayatou claimed his payments were for the Confederation of African Football's birthday party and Diack said his was a gift to help rebuild a house that had burned down. Leoz told Garcia he gave all the money he had received from ISL to a school project – but only eight years after he received it. Eckert says that Leoz was "not fully candid" with the Fifa executive committee or with Garcia.
Garcia's frustration with his inability to get key witnesses to talk and access to evidence jumps off the page. Eckert laments that "certain former employees" have failed to speak to Garcia, a former deputy FBI director, and recommends a clause be inserted in future contracts to force them to do so.
Investigating the complicity of Fifa officials in a 2.5m payment in Swiss francs by Havelange and Teixeira in 2004 to settle an action by ISL's administrators, "parts remain in the dark". Garcia and Eckert conclude that Fifa's actions during this period "may very well be seen to be affected by a conflict of interest" but, again, broke no (non-existent) rules.
Another familiar figure, Jack Warner, this week gave a rambling speech after being forced to stand down as a Trinidad government minister in which he recounted the means by which he secured the votes that allowed Blatter to become president in 1998 and the "gift" bequeathed him by Havelange to persuade him to do so. It was a reminder that Blatter, no matter how hard he tries to move on, is bound to his past.
Ultimately the long-awaited publication of the report leaves matters not much further forward. Before 2004 taking bribes was not illegal under Swiss law. Fifa, meanwhile, had no ethics code. As a result Eckert was able to conclude that no one had broken the law or Fifa's code of ethics. Catch 22.
He airily concludes: "It may well be the case that ethics rules could have been introduced earlier at Fifa and that there were no sufficient control mechanisms in earlier years but this does not lead to any violation of ethical standards, which only existed as rules from October 2004." Blatter worked in senior positions at Fifa from 1975 onwards and became president in 1998.
Fifa's critics remain adamant that Blatter's self-serving reform process has not gone far enough or fast enough and that the "internal" investigation was neither robust nor independent enough. Another decision on Tuesday, to ban Sri Lankan executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando for eight years for unspecified breaches of the ethics code, could be read two ways - as evidence of tough decisions being taken or as raising new questions over transparency.
Former big beasts of the Fifa jungle are being felled across the globe but Blatter remains standing. And despite having insisted that this would be his last term as president, he has started manoeuvring his chess pieces for yet another shot at re-election.