The Making of a Global FIFA : Cold War Politics and the Rise of João Havelange to the FIFA Presidency, 1950–1974

In 1974, the Brazilian sports official João Havelange was elected FIFA’s president in a two-round election, defeating the incumbent Stanley Rous. The story told by Havelange himself describes a private odyssey in which the protagonist crisscrosses two thirds of the world canvassing for votes and challenging the institutional __status quo__. For many scholars, Havelange’s triumph changed FIFA’s (International Federation of Football Association) identity, gradually turning it into a global and immensely wealthy institution. Conversely, the election can be analyzed as a historical event. 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. In this regard, this book seeks to understand which actors were involved in the election, how the networks were shaped, and which political agents were directly engaged in the campaign. The RERIS Studies in International Sport Relations series publishes books that explore interconnectivity between several actors (people, organizations and/or states) at the international level. It aims to showcase works (individual or collective) that use new critical methodologies, sources from a variety of different languages, and topics that challenge Euro-American-centrism and assumptions about gender in global sport