{"id":859235,"date":"2026-08-18T04:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/859235\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T04:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:40:16","slug":"football-news-2026-fifa-chief-operating-officer-kevin-lamour-sacked-weeks-after-criticising-president-gianni-infantinos-private-investment-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/859235\/","title":{"rendered":"Football news 2026 | FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour sacked weeks after criticising president Gianni Infantino\u2019s private investment plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA<\/a>\u2018s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has been sacked three weeks after he criticised Gianni Infantino<\/a>\u2019s failed plan to sell stakes in major competitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Staff were informed via an email from FIFA\u2019s secretary general Mattias Grafstrom on Tuesday (AEST) that Lamour and the organisation had \u201cagreed to part ways\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Lamour seen at a Turkiye v Georgia game during the 2024 Euros.\u00a0AP Photo\/Alessandra Tarantino<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future,\u201d the organisation wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo further comment will be made on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The split comes after Lamour claimed the failed private investment plans \u201cdeceived\u201d FIFA\u2019s own administration and were truly \u201cthe project of one person\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lamour added FIFA president, Infantino, who was not mentioned by name in the public statement, was not fulfilling his duty of uniting people through football<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission – the mission of the hundreds of passionate, dedicated and exemplary FIFA employees – is to serve football,\u201d Lamour said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service.<\/p>\n

\u201cA president must bring people together and inspire them. Today, we are experiencing the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamour went on to recognise that if his words meant he would lose his job, \u201cthen so be it. I will understand and respect that decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lamour\u2019s public declaration came hours after football member associations such as the Asian Football Confederation, which Australia falls under, declared it would not be supporting Infantino\u2019s private investment proposal. <\/p>\n

Carlos Cordeiro, a senior advisor of Infantino, had also resigned that day after five years at the organisation<\/a> due to his own disapproval of the now failed plans. <\/p>\n

Despite most member associations holding a similar view to Lamour, Infantino went on the receive the backing of senior executives who attended a crisis meeting in Morocco<\/a> earlier this month to remain in charge of FIFA. <\/p>\n

The BBC reports Lamour, who formerly worked as a deputy general secretary at UEFA<\/a>, was not invited to attend that meeting. <\/p>\n

Australian great Craig Foster feels Lamour\u2019s dismissal is another \u201cdisturbing sign from FIFA that demonstrates its lack of institutional integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo different from governments, in this respect, the person who exposes the rot, the cover-up, the corruption is excised, the organisation closes ranks and moves on,\u201d he wrote on X. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a clear warning to others. Hold us accountable, and you\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Infantino survives one of then worst corruption episodes in FIFA\u2019s modern history, a very high bar, the organisation will get worse. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf this saga is acceptable, anything is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressure has been mounting on Infantino to is set to run for re-election as FIFA president next March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA\u2018s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has been sacked three weeks after he criticised Gianni Infantino\u2019s failed plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-859235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859235","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=859235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}