The chief operating officer of FIFA has accused Gianni Infantino of 'deceiving' staff in relation to the plot to sell World Cup stakes to private investors, adding the proposal 'must not go ahead'.
Infantino unveiled plans to sell off a portion of FIFA's commercial businesses, including tournaments such as the World Cup and the Club World Cup, to private investors. However, his proposal has been met with a ferocious backlash from football's other governing bodies including UEFA, whose nations are ready to boycott future World Cups if the plans go ahead.
One of the 55-year-old's senior advisors, Carlos Cordeiro, has already resigned over the plans. And now another of Infantino's colleagues has torn into the proposal.
Kevin Lamour, who has been FIFA's COO since 2024, says Infantino “deceived” staff with his scheme in a damning statement shared with AP, saying they “deserve better than contempt and intimidation.”
“It is the project of one person,”
Lamour said.
“Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”
Lamour, who also worked with Infantino at UEFA previously, did not resign from his post like Cordeiro but added:
“And if that means I lose my job, then so be it. I will understand and respect that decision. At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”
His comments come hot on the heels of Cordeiro deciding to resign from his post over the plans, which prompted UEFA to confirm their nations will boycott future tournaments if they go ahead.
“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,”
Cordeiro said.
“Let me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,”
he added, describing the proposed $20 billion commercial subsidiary as a “bad deal for football”.
The backlash has since widened, with the Sunday Times reporting that Infantino looks “certain to go” after what it described as “shabby” attempts to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors. The paper said a source described him as a “dead duck”, while opponents were reportedly lining up candidates as his successor.
According to the same report, the FA and UEFA said they had lost confidence in Infantino. In a stinging statement, which the English FA said it supported, UEFA described the scheme as a “shabby, back-room, opaque deal he [Infantino] hatched and tried to force through”.
It added: “The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
Former FA chief Mark Pallios was among those calling on Infantino to go. He said: “He should not survive. “He has delivered these plans with a complete lack of transparency.”
England legend Peter Reid slammed Infantino and called for him to resign for the good of the game. He told the Mirror: “He must go - look at the World Cup: the hydration breaks for advertising, the half time show in the final. “FIFA has hundreds of millions already, they should be putting more money into grassroots.”
CONCACAF, which governs the north and central American associations, plus the Caribbean, called for a “comprehensive reckoning” with Infantino's presidency.
“A proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident,” CONCACAF said in a statement.
“It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first.
“This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour.”
Uefa led the way in opposing the plan with its 55 members, including the FA, agreeing on Thursday to boycott all Fifa competitions.
“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” it said.
“We must identify those responsible and hold them to account. This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story.
“The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.”
Sources told the Sunday Times that senior figures in FIFA were looking to find a successor to Infantino. The report said Infantino could have profited from the “Fifa Forward Enterprise” scheme (FFE) and is trying to stay in his post, but his support is flooding away.
A spokeswoman for the FA said: “We fully support UEFA's position. It is time for a full and robust review of FIFA's leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long-term stewardship of football at its heart.”
Infantino is likely to face an emergency FIFA council meeting where he will be asked to resign. If he refuses, a single candidate backed by all his opponents would be put up to challenge him in next year's election. Candidates for the role include Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, Asian football president Sheikh Salman and Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi. There may also be support for a less high-profile candidate who has backing from across the various continents.
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