The ‘invention’ of FIFA history: João Havelange’s election to FIFA presidency as a historic event

In 1974, the Brazilian sports official João Havelange was elected FIFA’s president in a two-round election, defeating the incumbent Stanley Rous. The upset, often attributed to a successful alliance with Asia, the Middle East and Africa, what at the time was referred to as the Third World – surprised observers everywhere. Here, the election can be analysed as a historically relevant event of social significance. It can be thought of as a political window by means of which the international dynamic of a specific moment in the Cold War can be perceived, especially the limitations and potentialities of the agency available to periphery countries at that time.  In this article, I intend to discuss the narratives that forged the history of FIFA, which take this political ‘event’ as a key in the institution’s own historical transformation. The sources analysed will be mainly FIFA official histories, such as the FIFA News, FIFA historical books and movies about the history of FIFA.