{"id":858955,"date":"2026-08-17T22:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858955\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:58:09","slug":"fifa-chief-sacked-after-criticism-of-infantinos-world-cup-sell-off-plan-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858955\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa chief sacked after criticism of Infantino\u2019s World Cup sell-off plan | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has been sacked after openly criticising Gianni Infantino\u2019s ill-fated plan to sell parts of the World Cup<\/a> to private investors.<\/p>\n

In a significant development at the pinnacle of world football\u2019s deeply troubled governing body, Lamour has departed less than two years after joining from a previous role at Uefa. He had come out strongly against Infantino\u2019s FFE scheme after it was revealed, saying Fifa\u2019s administration had been \u201cdeceived\u201d and that the president \u201cbelieves he embodies Fifa<\/a> when he is supposed to be at its service\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lamour had also made clear that he would countenance losing his job as a consequence of opposing the plan, which was shelved hours after he spoke out on 31 July. \u201cIf that means I lose my job, then so be it,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cI will understand and respect that decision. At least I\u2019ll sleep well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The precise circumstances of his sacking are unclear but the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, informed staff in an email that Lamour would be leaving the organisation.<\/p>\n

A Fifa spokesperson said: \u201cFifa can confirm that the working relationship between Fifa and Kevin Lamour as Fifa\u2019s chief operating officer has ended on 17 August 2026. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the statement that appears to have expedited his departure, Lamour also said his colleagues \u201cdeserve better than contempt and intimidation\u201d. He added: \u201cMy feeling is that we all want to be proud to work for Fifa, and today, unfortunately, it seems that is no longer the case for many of us.\u201d On the same day one of Infantino\u2019s senior advisers, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned in protest at Infantino\u2019s proposals.<\/p>\n

Lamour had been Uefa\u2019s deputy secretary general before joining Fifa, and had first joined the European body in 2007. His departure is all the more eye-catching for his longstanding working relationship with Infantino, with whom he also worked at Uefa. Infantino continues to be under huge pressure after the failure of his scheme, with efforts to force his removal continuing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has been sacked after openly criticising Gianni Infantino\u2019s ill-fated plan to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-858955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}