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 comes after Lamour issued a public statement on July 31 accusing Infantino of lacking transparency over two linked proposals. Lamour claimed Infantino had actively deceived FIFA staff about the nature and implications of those plans.
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. FIFA has not issued any public statement explaining the termination.
Background
Lamour joined FIFA as COO on November 1, 2024, arriving from UEFA where he had served as deputy general secretary. His criticism did not emerge in a vacuum, as 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.
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.