FIFA COO Lamour exits after criticism of Infantino’s World Cup plan

FIFA has announced that chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has left the organisation, weeks after he publicly criticised Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell a stake in the commercial rights of the World Cup and other tournaments.

“FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer has ended on 17 August 2026,” a FIFA spokesperson said late on Monday.

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“FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future. No further comment will be made on the matter.”

Lamour joined the senior leadership group of football’s global governing body in November 2024, having previously been part of the inner circle that campaigned for Infantino’s election as FIFA president in 2016.

Lamour had publicly criticised the proposal last month, saying FIFA staff had been “deceived” over the plan and describing it as “the project of one person”.

“Our mission … is to serve football, not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service,” Lamour said.

Frenchman Lamour’s comments came soon after Carlos Cordeiro, a senior adviser to Infantino, resigned in protest against the proposal, calling it “a bad deal for football”. Infantino withdrew the proposal later the same day.

The backlash to the plan to create a $20bn subsidiary and sell up to a 20 percent stake to private equity investors to raise $4.2bn has not abated, however.

Infantino’s bid for re-election for a fourth term as president in March next year, which once looked a formality, is now far from certain.

The powerful European confederation UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF are ranged in opposition to the 56-year-old Swiss supremo, although he retains the support of the African and South American confederations.

Human rights in sport organisation FairSquare confirmed on Monday it had written to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC), urging that Infantino be ruled ineligible to seek another term as president.

Backlash puts Infantino’s FIFA presidency under pressure

While FIFA presidents are limited to three terms, Infantino successfully argued in 2022 that his first stint in office from 2016 to 2019 should not count towards that limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.

Infantino was initially elected at an Extraordinary Congress following the resignation of Sepp Blatter amid a corruption scandal. He was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

“The complaint we have filed provides clear evidence that this is a clear breach of the rules and one that sets a very dangerous precedent,” FairSquare director Nicholas McGeehan told the Reuters news agency.

“The rules state clearly that three presidential terms is the maximum allowed. FIFA can’t simply circumvent this rule – which serves as a check on presidential power – by saying that his first term doesn’t count.”

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

Last week, UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, which runs football in the Caribbean, North and Central America, called for an independent review of Infantino’s conduct.

Sources with knowledge of the situation said the three confederations viewed the letter as an opportunity for Infantino to quit with his dignity intact.

FairSquare’s letter to the GACC was drafted with the assistance of Miguel Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s independent Governance and Review Committee, who said the governing body could not disregard its own rules.

“The principle of term limits was a fundamental aspect of the 2016 reform aimed at limiting power and the rule introduced is clear: no FIFA President can serve more than three terms of office,” Maduro said in a statement.

“Trying to carve out an exception to such a rule for Mr Infantino reveals both a resistance to the principle of term limits and how some at FIFA conceive of rules not as rules but as obstacles to be circumvented.”

A FairSquare complaint to the International Olympic Committee over Infantino’s alleged breach of the body’s rules on political neutrality because of his support for United States President Donald Trump was rejected last month. Infantino has been an IOC member since 2020.

Reporting originally appeared via Al Jazeera. Read the full source for additional context.