FIFA COO Kevin Lamour Leaves After Explosive Infantino Criticism

FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has left the organisation less than three weeks after publicly condemning President Gianni Infantino’s controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise plan, accusing the project’s architects of misleading staff and warning football leaders to challenge the direction of the governing body.
FIFA confirmed on Monday, 17 August 2026, that Lamour’s working relationship with the organisation had ended, bringing an abrupt conclusion to his two-year spell as chief operating officer.
“FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as Chief Operating Officer has ended on 17 August 2026,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future.”
The governing body declined to comment on reports that Lamour had been dismissed.
His departure comes just over two weeks after he delivered one of the most direct public criticisms of Infantino from a senior FIFA official.
In a statement released on 31 July, Lamour described the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal as “the project of one person” and accused the organisation's administration of being “deceived” over how the plan had been developed.
He also called on football’s political leaders to “ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions”, while defending FIFA employees whom he said deserved better treatment.
Lamour acknowledged that he had a duty of loyalty to FIFA but said that loyalty also extended to “certain values” and to supporting his colleagues. His comments were widely interpreted as a direct challenge to Infantino’s leadership and the way the FFE proposal had been handled.
The controversial FFE proposal
The FIFA Forward Enterprise was unveiled in late July as a proposed FIFA-owned subsidiary that would bring together the governing body’s commercial rights and the operational delivery of its competitions.
Under the proposal, FFE would oversee commercial activities including broadcasting, sponsorship, licensing, ticketing and hospitality, as well as the operation of FIFA competitions. FIFA argued that concentrating these activities could unlock additional commercial value and generate more money for its 211 member associations.
The proposal, however, quickly triggered a major backlash.
Reports indicated that FIFA was considering opening a minority stake in the new entity to private investors, with the proposed company valued at around $20 billion. That prospect raised concerns among football officials about the commercialisation of the World Cup and other major competitions.
Opposition intensified rapidly, with UEFA and other football bodies expressing strong reservations about the plan. FIFA subsequently abandoned the proposal, saying the divisions it had created were no longer compatible with its original objective.
Infantino had defended FFE as an opportunity to generate greater commercial value and increase investment in football development, insisting that the proposal remained subject to consultation and approval by FIFA’s member associations and Council.
Internal fallout
Lamour was not the only senior FIFA figure to oppose the initiative.
Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned around the same time, saying he could not support a proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup. Lamour then went further by publicly accusing the organisation of failing to be sufficiently transparent with its own employees.
The controversy therefore exposed an unusually deep split within FIFA’s senior leadership.
Lamour’s departure now adds another significant development to the fallout from the failed FFE project. Although FIFA has not explicitly linked his exit to his criticism, the timing — with his departure coming only 17 days after his public intervention — is likely to intensify questions about the circumstances surrounding his removal.
According to reports, FIFA staff were informed of Lamour’s departure in an email sent by Secretary General Mattias Grafström on Monday evening.
Lamour had been a senior figure within FIFA since 2024 and had previously worked with Infantino during his time at UEFA, making his criticism particularly notable. His decision to speak out suggested that opposition to FFE extended beyond external football organisations and into FIFA’s own senior administration.
For now, FIFA has offered no explanation beyond confirming that Lamour is no longer with the organisation.
But his exit leaves a striking question hanging over the governing body: was Lamour’s departure simply a change in senior management, or the latest consequence of the internal battle that brought Infantino’s ambitious FFE project crashing down?