FIFA sacks COO Kevin Lamour after public criticism of Infantino

FIFA has fired its chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, effective August 17, 2026, following a public confrontation in which Lamour accused president Gianni Infantino of misleading staff about plans to sell stakes in World Cup commercial rights to private equity investors. The dismissal caps a rapid fall from grace for an executive who had only joined the organization roughly nine months earlier.

What Lamour actually said

On July 31, Lamour issued a public statement accusing Infantino of lacking transparency over two linked proposals: the sale of future World Cup revenue streams to private equity funds, and the creation of a $20 billion commercial subsidiary that Lamour described as “a bad deal for football.”

The core allegation was not just strategic disagreement. Lamour claimed Infantino had actively deceived FIFA staff about the nature and implications of those plans, which is a notably more serious charge than a policy dispute between executives.

“If that means I lose my job, then so be it. I’ll sleep well tonight,” Lamour said, according to reporting on the statement. He framed his decision to speak out as an act of solidarity with colleagues, suggesting the commercialization push carried consequences that rank-and-file staff had not been told about.

FIFA has not issued any public statement explaining the termination.

The commercial strategy at the center of the fight

The proposed $20 billion commercial subsidiary would have created a separate vehicle to house and sell those rights, structurally distancing FIFA’s core governance from its most lucrative income streams.

His criticism did not emerge in a vacuum. A senior adviser had already resigned before Lamour made his statement, and reports surfaced that Lamour had been deliberately excluded from internal crisis meetings as tensions within the organization escalated.

Lamour’s brief tenure and what it signals

Lamour joined FIFA as COO on November 1, 2024, arriving from UEFA where he had served as deputy general secretary. Less than a year later, he is out, fired after publicly challenging the president.

The broader pattern reinforces that reading. A senior adviser resigned before Lamour spoke. Lamour was reportedly cut out of meetings. Then Lamour spoke. Then Lamour was fired.

The fate of the underlying commercial proposals, the private equity stake sale and the $20 billion subsidiary structure, remains unresolved. Lamour’s termination removes a vocal internal opponent, but it does not resolve the substantive concerns he raised.

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