"Now he is thrown out and we are supposed to move on. It's unacceptable, it's management by fear." Norway FA president Lise Klaveness didn't mince words on Tuesday — and she's right to say it out loud.
Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer and by Klaveness's own description "the best football administrator I have ever met," was fired on Monday. The timing is not subtle. It came exactly 17 days after Lamour went to the Associated Press and publicly accused Gianni Infantino of deceiving FIFA staff over a $20 billion private equity deal that would have sold future World Cup profits to investors led by Joshua Kushner. Hours after Lamour's statement dropped, the deal collapsed. Then Lamour's job followed.
What Lamour actually said — and why it mattered
This wasn't a disgruntled employee venting. Lamour had been alongside Infantino since their UEFA days together from 2007 to 2015, worked on his 2016 presidential campaign, and moved to Zurich two years ago to run FIFA's day-to-day operations. When someone that close, that trusted, says FIFA staff were treated with "contempt and intimidation" and that they "deserve better" — people listen. And they did.
The plan itself was alarming enough. A $4.2 billion investment from Kushner's group would have bought a 20% stake in a FIFA commercial spin-off. Each of FIFA's 211 national member federations would have been offered $20 million to approve it, with a mid-September deadline to say yes or no. FIFA already has multibillion dollar reserves. Its members already effectively own it. The logic of selling off future profits to private equity — with minimal transparency — provoked a backlash from UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation, and Concacaf. Lamour's intervention gave the opposition the inside confirmation it needed.
"His statement was necessary to kill the project," Klaveness said plainly. She's not wrong. Without someone inside the building saying it explicitly, this could have been framed as external politics. Lamour made that impossible.
Infantino's position just got shakier
Before this blew up, Infantino was tracking toward unopposed reelection at next year's congress in Morocco. That picture has changed. The deadline for challengers to enter the race is November 18, and the governing body's credibility is now a live question rather than a formality.
Klaveness also directed pointed criticism at FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström, suggesting the firing was carried out by Grafström "obviously being pressured by the president." She's calling on FIFA's own administration to resist orders they know damage football. That's not a vague appeal — that's a direct challenge to the people still in the building to decide which side of this they're on.
After Lamour was excluded from a senior management meeting in Rabat, those present issued a statement reaffirming "full support" of Infantino's presidency. FIFA's official farewell to Lamour thanked him for "two years of service." Seventeen days after he spoke up, that's all he got.
