FIFA confirmed that Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour left the governing body on 17 August 2026, less than three weeks after publicly criticising president Gianni Infantino's aborted FIFA Forward Enterprise plan. Lamour had called the FFE proposal "the project of one person," said FIFA's administration was "deceived," and warned that a president should "bring people together"; he added that if speaking out cost him his job "then so be it" and "At least I'll sleep well tonight." Secretary general Mattias Grafstrom informed staff by email and told FIFA Council members in a letter that the organisation and Lamour had "agreed to part ways" and thanked him for two years of service. Lamour joined FIFA in November 2024 after serving as deputy general secretary at UEFA and was two layers of management below Infantino. The FFE plan was abandoned after criticism of a proposal to sell 21 percent of the new company to private investors, with UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation publicly opposing it and UEFA threatening a World Cup boycott. A senior Infantino adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned amid the fallout, and UEFA and Concacaf later withdrew their support for Infantino's bid for a fourth presidential term at next March's FIFA Congress.
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