Fifa dismisses Lamour weeks after opposing Infantino scheme
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Fifa's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has been sacked, less than three weeks after he publicly criticised president Gianni Infantino's now-abandoned plan to sell stakes in Fifa's competitions to private investors. Fifa confirmed only that the working relationship "ended" on 17 August 2026, while secretary general Mattias Grafstrom told staff the two sides had "agreed to part ways" — though the timing strongly suggests Lamour paid the price for speaking out against the leadership, and he was notably excluded from a recent meeting in Morocco where Infantino secured executives' backing.
Lamour, who joined Fifa in November 2024 after serving as Uefa's deputy general secretary, had called the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme "the project of one person" and said Fifa's own administration had been "deceived" over it. The FFE plan, which would have handed 21% of a new company managing commercial and ticketing rights to private investors, collapsed after opposition from Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation. In a farewell note to staff, Lamour said "it's not about doing what's easy; it's about doing what's right," while separately the Scottish FA withdrew its support for Infantino as president.
- Fifa sacked COO Kevin Lamour after he criticised Infantino's private-investment plan.
- The Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme was abandoned amid confederation opposition.
- Scottish FA has since withdrawn support for Infantino's presidency.
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Fifa is football's world governing body, and Gianni Infantino has been its president since 2016. He recently proposed a scheme, known as Fifa Forward Enterprise, that would have sold a 21% stake in a new company controlling Fifa's commercial and ticketing rights to private investors. The plan was dropped after several regional football confederations objected.
Kevin Lamour became Fifa's chief operating officer in November 2024, having previously held a senior role at Uefa, European football's governing body. He was one of the most senior figures inside Fifa to speak out publicly against the investment scheme, describing it as driven by one person and saying Fifa's administration had been misled about it.
Lamour has now left his post at Fifa, with the organisation and its secretary general giving differing explanations for his departure. The situation matters because it touches on how much internal dissent is tolerated within Fifa's leadership, and it comes alongside separate signs of friction over Infantino's presidency, including a national football association withdrawing its backing for him.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Fifa and its leadership can reasonably argue that senior executive departures are a normal feature of any large organisation, and that a chief operating officer who has publicly broken ranks with the president and characterised the administration as "deceived" has, by his own actions, made a continued working relationship untenable regardless of who was right about the underlying policy. On this view, an organisation's leadership must retain the ability to part ways with executives who air internal disagreements publicly, since unity and discretion in top management are necessary for Fifa to function and negotiate credibly with confederations, sponsors and governments, and Grafstrom's account of a mutual, amicable separation should be taken at face value absent direct evidence of retaliation.
The case against
Critics, including those sympathetic to internal reformers, can reasonably argue that the timing is too pointed to ignore: a COO who spoke out against a president's flagship commercial scheme, calling it a personal project built on deception of the administration, was removed within three weeks of doing so, immediately after that scheme collapsed under confederation pressure and cost Infantino the backing of Uefa and Concacaf for a fourth term. On this view, protecting executives and staff who raise good-faith concerns about governance and transparency is essential to Fifa's credibility as a steward of the sport, and allowing a president to quietly remove a vocal internal critic – whatever the official explanation – sets a troubling precedent that discourages future dissent within the organisation.
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Originally published by BBC Sport as “Lamour leaves Fifa after Infantino plan criticism”.