FIFA confirms COO Kevin Lamour has left after criticising Infantino’s World Cup plans

FIFA Confirms COO Kevin Lamour’s Departure

Poinews.com – FIFA confirms COO Kevin Lamour has left the organization, ending a turbulent two-year tenure that culminated in a public clash with president Gianni Infantino over plans to commercialize the World Cup. Infantino’s office announced the departure on 17 August 2026, offering no formal explanation beyond a brief thank-you note. Multiple news outlets reported that the split was effectively a dismissal following Lamour’s open criticism of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal.

“FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future.”

A spokesperson told AFP that “the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA’s chief operating officer has ended,” confirming what had been widely anticipated after weeks of escalating tension within the Zurich-based governing body.

The FFE Dispute That Shattered the Alliance

The rupture came less than three weeks after the former UEFA executive publicly challenged Infantino’s blueprint for a commercial subsidiary called the FIFA Forward Enterprise. Valued at roughly $20 billion (€17 billion), the FFE was designed to manage FIFA’s flagship tournaments — the World Cup among them — while opening a 20 percent equity stake to outside investors. The structure would have shifted control of the sport’s most lucrative properties into a separate corporate vehicle answerable to shareholders rather than to member associations.

In a statement dated 31 July, Lamour charged that FIFA’s leadership had been “deceived” about how the proposal was shaped internally. He dismissed the entire venture as “the project of one person” and urged the sport’s political leadership to reconsider its direction.

“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.”

Those words proved prophetic. Within days of the statement, three continental confederations — UEFA, CONCACAF, and the AFC — declared the plan a “fundamental breach of trust” with the institutions the entity was meant to serve. Infantino ultimately shelved the FFE, but the damage to internal cohesion had already been done, and the executive relationship could not be repaired.

A Senior Figure, Suddenly Gone

Lamour had held one of the most powerful positions within FIFA since arriving from UEFA in November 2024. His portfolio spanned finance, legal and compliance, communications, member-association relations, technology, operations, and social responsibility across the organization’s hubs in Zurich, Paris, and Miami. His departure leaves a significant gap in the executive structure at a moment when the body is preparing for the 2026 World Cup cycle and navigating heightened scrutiny over its commercial strategy.

The exit follows the resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s senior adviser, who stepped down the previous month. A former president of US Soccer and a Goldman Sachs veteran, Cordeiro stated he had played no part in crafting the FFE and labeled the scheme “a bad deal for football.” He pressed the question of why a body carrying substantial reserves and no debt needed to court billions from external capital.

On 8 August, FIFA issued a statement pushing