Senior FIFA executive says staff were deceived over Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA’s chief operating officer said its staff were deceived by their president Gianni Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan, and suggested on Friday the project must not go ahead.

Zurich-based executive Kevin Lamour 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’ plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private equity funds.

Lamour wrote that staff were “deceived” by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and “deserve better than contempt and intimidation.”

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour, a long-time colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and European soccer body UEFA, wrote. “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’s statement came hours after Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” 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.

“Let me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,” Cordeiro said. He called the $20 billion commercial subsidiary “a bad deal for football.”

Lamour did not resign the post he has held since 2024 but said he had a duty to his colleagues.

“And if that means I lose my job then so be it” the French official said. “I will understand and respect that decision. At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”

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’s offers of $20 million each by a Sept. 19 deadline.

Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years.

“Football 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,” he said. “That is why this proposal should be rejected.”

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors. The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is Kushner, the younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“FIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources. The organization sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt,” Cordeiro said. He noted FIFA’s revenue of $15 billion over the last four years tied to the men’s World Cup just ended.

“Against that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football’s most valuable asset to raise $4.2 billion makes little sense. It is mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification,” he said.

Cordeiro said he shared five years of working for FIFA alongside Infantino with “dedicated, principled people who care deeply about the game.”

“I hope they, too, will speak up,” he wrote, “because decisions of this magnitude should be made in the interests of football, not those who stand to profit from it.”

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.

Lamour was part of Infantino’s inner circle that campaigned for him to become the surprise winner of that FIFA presidential election in February 2016.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press