News of Weber's death from cancer was announced via the pages of the French press.

"Our very dear father, father-in-law, our dear grandpa, brother-in-law, godfather, uncle, cousin, relative and friend, left to join his wife Myriam on February 20, 2018, in his 76th year," a notice said. 

The Swiss-based ISL managed FIFA's marketing and television rights for more than 20 years, before it went bankrupt in May 2001 with its multi-million dollar debts.

In 2008, following a four-year investigation by prosecutors in Switzerland, six former ISL executives, including Weber, were accused of a series of charges including fraud, embezzlement and the falsification of documents.

ISL, established by former Adidas boss Horst Dassler, were also associated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). 

Weber, Dassler’s personal assistant until his death in 1987, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on buying television and marketing rights.

This included, in some cases, paying bribes to senior international officials.

During the trial, Weber refused to acknowledge the payments were bribes and instead called them "commissions" or "fees". 

He refused, though, to identify those he had given bribes too.

"I will take the names with me to the grave," he told prosecutors.

Paperwork later emerged, however, that revealed among those who received illegal bribes from Weber were FIFA Executive Board members Ricardo Teixeira, President of Brazil's Football Federation and of the 2014 World Cup Organising Committee, Nicolas Léoz of Paraguay, President of the South American Football Confederation, and Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, President of the African Football Confederation and a member of the IOC.

The late long-serving FIFA President João Havelange also appeared on a list of people Weber bribed between 1989 and 1999 with a total of 175 payments worth more than CHF 122 million (£93 million/$131 million/€106 million).

Even after the ISL scandal, Weber remained close to several leading figures in world sport, including Havelange and his successor as FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Several leading officials who used to deal with Weber are currently attending the Winter Olympic Games here. 

He was also a close friend of former IAAF President Lamine Diack, currently facing allegations in France of corruption linked to doping in Russia. 

In 2011, the IOC Executive Board meeting reprimanded both Hayatou and Diack for receiving money from ISL. 

Havelange resigned as an IOC member on the eve of the meeting to avoid being censured. 

Weber is due to be buried tomorrow in Molsheim in France.