FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has said that FIFA staff were "deceived" by president Gianni Infantino's plans for the FIFA Forward Enterprise.
Infantino sent a proposal for the FIFA Forward Enterprise, a 20-billion-dollar company that would control the organisation and revenue of the FIFA World Cup and be chaired by Infantino, to the 211 FIFA members earlier this week.
The proposal was met with great resistance, with the AFC and CONCACAF openly rejecting the proposal and UEFA members unanimously voting to boycott all FIFA tournaments as long as the 'FFE' proposal is on the table.
In a statement shared with the Associated Press, Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer, joined in on the critique of Infantino, saying FIFA staff were "deceived" by Infantino's proposal.
"It is the project of one person. 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 said.
Lamour joined FIFA as chief operating officer in 2024 after serving as Deputy General Secretary at UEFA, having initially joined the organisation in 2007 and working alongside Gianni Infantino, who was UEFA's General Secretary on an interim basis in 2007 and on a permanent basis between 2009 and 2016.
Lamour also worked on Infantino's election campaign team in 2016, when the latter was elected president of FIFA.
Lamour, a born Frenchman with dual French-Swiss citizenship, underlined his statement against Infantino by putting his job on the line.
“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," he concluded.
Earlier on Friday, Carlos Cordeiro, Gianni Infantino's senior advisor, announced he'd stepped down following Infantino's proposal, stating that the plan is a "bad deal for FIFA's Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game."
