{"id":838702,"date":"2026-07-31T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:27:09","slug":"senior-fifa-officials-criticize-infantinos-world-cup-sell-off-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838702\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior FIFA officials criticize Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (AP) \u2014 FIFA\u2019s chief operating officer said its staff were deceived by their president Gianni Infantino\u2019s World Cup sell-off plan<\/a>, and suggested on Friday the project must not go ahead.<\/p>\n

Zurich-based executive Kevin Lamour<\/a> all but invited Infantino to fire him in a statement to The Associated Press that defended his colleagues amid intense fallout from the FIFA boss\u2019 plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private equity funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lamour wrote that staff were \u201cdeceived\u201d by Infantino\u2019s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and \u201cdeserve better than contempt and intimidation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the project of one person,\u201d Lamour, a long-time colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and European soccer body UEFA, wrote. \u201cNot only must this project not go ahead \u2026 but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamour\u2019s statement came hours after Infantino\u2019s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup<\/a>, resigned and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,\u201d Cordeiro wrote in a statement. The former U.S. Soccer Federation president said he was not included in talks about the plan backed by a New York investment fund created by Joshua Kushner.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,\u201d Cordeiro said. He called the $20 billion commercial subsidiary \u201ca bad deal for football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamour did not resign the post he has held since 2024 but said he had a duty to his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if that means I lose my job then so be it\u201d the French official said. \u201cI will understand and respect that decision. At least I\u2019ll sleep well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamour came to soccer from politics two decades ago as an aide to then-UEFA president Michel Platini. He often had an international role in soccer politics liaising with FIFA member federations in Africa and Asia who are weighing their own decisions about Infantino\u2019s offers of $20 million each by a Sept. 19 deadline.<\/p>\n

Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball has been central to my life, and after more than 35 years in banking I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why this proposal should be rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n

European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions in protest of Gianni Infantino\u2019s plan to bring private equity investors into soccer\u2019s biggest tournament. North America\u2019s soccer body also rejected the proposal. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA\u2019s commercial businesses \u2014 including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women \u2014 into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors. The \u201canchor investor,\u201d described by FIFA, is Kushner, the younger brother of Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner. <\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources. The organization sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt,\u201d Cordeiro said. He noted FIFA\u2019s revenue of $15 billion over the last four years tied to the men\u2019s World Cup just ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football\u2019s most valuable asset to raise $4.2 billion makes little sense. It is mortgaging football\u2019s future without any compelling justification,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cordeiro said he shared five years of working for FIFA alongside Infantino with \u201cdedicated, principled people who care deeply about the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they, too, will speak up,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbecause decisions of this magnitude should be made in the interests of football, not those who stand to profit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino has been president of FIFA for more than 10 years and seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next March. FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.<\/p>\n

Lamour was part of Infantino\u2019s inner circle that campaigned for him to become the surprise winner of that FIFA presidential election in February 2016.<\/p>\n

___ <\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a> and AP World Cup coverage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA (AP) \u2014 FIFA\u2019s chief operating officer said its staff were deceived by their president Gianni Infantino\u2019s World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[2843,49,48,292288,1376,3274,14990,19200,2561,90820,90715,292287,292289,561,82,25490],"class_list":["post-838702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-cordeiro","tag-donald-trump","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-inc","tag-jared-kushner","tag-joshua-kushner","tag-kevin-lamour","tag-michel-platini","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-the-goldman-sachs-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}