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FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has left his role less than three weeks after publicly attacking Gianni Infantino’s plan to bring private investors into world football’s biggest competitions.
FIFA confirmed Lamour’s employment ended on 17 August but did not give a reason for his departure. Some media outlets are claiming he had been sacked.
Lamour had been one of FIFA’s most senior executives since joining from European governing body UEFA in November 2024. His responsibilities included overseeing finance, legal and compliance, communications, member associations, technology and operations and social responsibility across FIFA’s offices in Zurich, Paris and Miami.
But he publicly broke with Infantino over the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new commercial subsidiary to be valued at around $20 billion (€17bn) to run its major tournaments – including the World Cup – and allow private investors to acquire a 20% stake.
Lamour accused FIFA’s administration of being “deceived” over how the proposal was developed and described FFE as “the project of one person”.
“Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”
“If that means I lose my job, then so be it,” Lamour said in a statement on July 31.
His departure follows the resignation of Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro last month, a former US Soccer president and Goldman Sachs executive.
Cordeiro said he had not been involved in developing FFE and described the proposal as “a bad deal for football”, questioning why FIFA needed to raise billions from outside investors when it had significant reserves and no debt.
Infantino subsequently abandoned FFE following widespread opposition when three regional football governing bodies – UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) and the AFC (Asia) – said his plan was a “fundamental breach of trust” with the institutions the body was designed to serve.
FIFA released a statement on 8 August in which it said, “It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its President.”
Additional sources • AFP