Kevin Lamour paid the price for calling out the World Cup privatisation scheme that nearly tore football apart.
FIFA confirmed Monday that its chief operating officer Kevin Lamour is gone. The French executive’s working relationship ended on 17 August, just 17 days after he publicly tore into president Gianni Infantino’s failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup.
Lamour did not go quietly. On 31 July he told the Associated Press that FIFA staff had been “deceived” by Infantino’s secretive push to create a $20 billion commercial subsidiary and sell roughly 20 percent to private investors. He called the scheme “the project of one person” and said football’s leaders must now “make the right decisions.”
He knew the risk. “If that means I lose my job, then so be it,” Lamour wrote. “At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”
The plan that blew up
Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal landed like a bomb in late July. The idea was to spin off commercial rights for the World Cup and other major tournaments into a new company valued at $20 billion, then sell a minority stake for about $4.2 billion. Member associations were offered $40 million each if they backed it by mid-September.
Opposition was swift and fierce. UEFA threatened a boycott of FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation joined the revolt. Inside FIFA, senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned the same day Lamour spoke out, calling the deal “a bad deal for football.”
Hours later Infantino abandoned the project. “The proposal will not proceed,” he said, citing divisions that were “no longer in the interest” of the game.
Management by fear
FIFA’s official statement thanked Lamour for two years of service and wished him well. Secretary general Mattias Grafström told staff the sides had “agreed to part ways.” Multiple outlets and Norwegian federation president Lise Klaveness described it as a sacking. Klaveness called the move “unacceptable” and “management by fear,” praising Lamour as one of the best administrators she had worked with.
Lamour had joined FIFA in November 2024 after years at UEFA, where he and Infantino once worked closely. He ranked among the organisation’s top three executives.
The departure deepens the crisis around Infantino’s leadership. Calls for him to step aside have come from federation presidents, politicians and European power brokers. An election for a fourth term is scheduled for March 2027.
Football’s biggest governing body has already shown it will punish internal dissent. Whether that restores confidence or hardens the opposition remains the next chapter in a bitter power struggle.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.