FIFA's COO is out. Infantino's plan is in pieces.

The departure

ESPN FC reports that Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer, has left the governing body amid significant internal backlash over Infantino's World Cup commercialisation initiative. The precise terms of his exit, whether resignation, dismissal or mutual agreement, have not been confirmed. What is clear is that Lamour's departure is directly linked to the collapse of the plan.

The plan that unravelled

Infantino had pushed a proposal to sell off rights or related commercial assets connected to the 2026 World Cup, a tournament FIFA is already billing as its biggest ever, spanning the United States, Canada and Mexico. The initiative ran into serious opposition, and according to ESPN FC, the backlash was enough to derail it entirely. The specifics of who opposed it, and at what stage it fell apart, have not been detailed in the available reporting.

The operational cost

A chief operating officer is not a peripheral role. The COO runs day-to-day operations, and losing one nine months before a 48-team, three-nation World Cup creates a concrete gap: procurement decisions, logistics coordination, and commercial delivery all run through that office. FIFA now heads into the most complex tournament in its history without the executive who was responsible for making it function, and no replacement has been announced.

What comes next

FIFA has not publicly addressed Lamour's departure, and the story is currently carried only by ESPN FC, so further detail may yet emerge. What is already established is that the organisation heads into the final stretch of 2026 preparations with a collapsed commercial strategy and a vacancy at the top of its operational structure, with no successor named.