The dismissal of chief operating officer Kevin Lamour by Fifa sends a "deeply troubling message to all of us seeking change", according to Uefa vice-president Laura McAllister.
On Monday evening, world football's governing body confirmed Lamour's exit, coming just over two weeks after he told the ******* ociated Press that the Fifa administration was "deceived" by president Gianni Infantino regarding a proposal to sell shares in a World Cup entity to private investors.
Lamour's public statement on 31 July, alongside the resignation of senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro earlier that day, placed Infantino under severe pressure, with Lamour labelling the private investment initiative as "the project of one person".
McAllister, a former Wales captain and current Uefa executive committee member who previously worked alongside Lamour when he served as deputy general secretary at the European governing body, has now voiced strong criticism of his sacking.
"I know Kevin Lamour to be an honourable and exemplary sports leader who was a trusted colleague of mine when I was first elected to Uefa Ex Co," McAllister said in a statement.

#infantino

ZURICH (AP) — FIFA's chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has reportedly left his role at soccer's governing body just weeks after saying its president, Gianni Infantino, had deceived staff with his World Cup sell-off plan.
Lamour, who is based in Zurich, all but invited Infantino to fire him in a statement to The ****** ociated Press on Aug. 1 that defended his colleagues amid intense fallout from the 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. He released the statement on the say day Infantino's senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, decided to walk away and described the $20 billion commercial subsidiary plan as "a bad deal for football."
Britain's Press ****** ociation late Monday quoted a FIFA spokesperson as saying: "FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA's Chief Operating Officer has ended."
"FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future. No further comment will be made on the matter."

#lamour

Selena Gomez's lawyer didn't mince words in his response to the lawsuit against the singer and her mother, Mandy Teefey, regarding their mental health company, Wondermind.
"The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported 'fraud' or other wrongdoing are completely meritless, both factually and legally," Gomez's attorney in the case, Mathew S. Rosengart, said Saturday in a statement to Page Six.
Rosengart vowed to "vigorously defend these false allegations" and stated they "indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims" against the pop star.
Selena Gomez's lawyer, Matthew S. Rosengart, slammed a lawsuit investors in the singer's mental health company, Wondermind, filed Aug. 13. (Gomez and her mother, Mandy Teefey, are seen above in March 2024.) Suzanne Cordeiro / Shutterstock
He called the allegations that Gomez (seen here in April 2024) had been engaged in "purported 'fraud' or other wrongdoings … completely meritless, both factually and legally." Getty Images for TIME

#selena #rosengart #allegations #teefey

Gianni Infantino's position as Fifa president is verging on untenable as member **** ociations begin to withdraw their support for his re-election following his disastrously botched bid to privatise the World Cup.
Infantino planned to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors under the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), but this was met with intense backlash from football federations, with Uefa threatening to boycott Fifa tournaments if the plans were passed.
The response forced a climbdown from the Swiss-Italian but that is far from the end of the story. Many footballing bodies say they have "lost confidence" in Infantino as president, with the Asian Football Confederation calling for an "urgent review of [Fifa's] governance".
And now Infantino has summoned senior Fifa officials to a crisis meeting with a number of his allies dwindling after Fifa's secretary general Mattias Grafstrom's criticism, while the president of the Jordan FA publicly accused Infantino of "blackmail".
Before he eventually scrapped the plans, senior figures inside Fifa turned on the president. Infantino's long-term adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, chose to quit in protest over the initial proposals, while Fifa's chief operating officer said that Infantino "deceived" staff over his plans.

#infantino #enterprise

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is the latest global official to express distrust in FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Carney spoke on Wednesday, August 5 in Toronto during a press conference about affordable housing and was asked about his thoughts on Infantino, who days earlier scrapped a controversial proposal to sell a minority stake in FIFA to private investors. Carney spent time with Infantino this summer, as Canada was a co-host of the World Cup with the United States and Mexico.
"I've run a few organizations in my time. The idea that proper governance is not to disclose to your closest advisors your chief operating officer, your fellow board members something of consequence that you're even considering let alone proposing, that's fatal, should be fatal," he said.
He continued by noting that FIFA has "their own procedures for making those determinations, but certainly I don't have confidence in Mr. Infantino after this point given what transpired and given the nature of what transpired."
Carney pointed to Carlos Cordeiro, a top advisor to Infantino, not being consulted on the deal and resigning after controversy ensued as evidence that the way Infantino is leading FIFA is problematic.

#carney #fatal #prime

Arsene Wenger, Fifa's chief of global football development, has publicly endorsed Gianni Infantino's decision to abandon a controversial plan to sell stakes in a World Cup company to private investors, describing the move as "absolutely necessary and beyond question."
The former ****** nal manager's statement on Tuesday follows a week of intense scrutiny over Infantino's proposal to establish Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) and offload a 20 per cent share to private equity firms.
The initiative faced significant opposition, with three continental confederations rejecting it outright, and Uefa going as far as threatening to boycott the World Cup and other Fifa competitions if the plan proceeded.
Wenger, who clarified he had no intention of following senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro in resigning, distanced himself from the FFE scheme. He ****** erted his belief in Fifa's role in serving the game with "commitment, transparency, and integrity."
Wenger has backed the decision to scrap the World Cup sell-off plan (Reuters)

#wenger #plan #private

Fifa's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour has become the second senior governing body official to put Gianni Infantino on blast after claiming he "deceived" staff in going ahead with plans to sell off the World Cup to private investors.
Infantino has faced staunch opposition to his Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) - the name for the commercial entity - with Uefa confirming they will boycott Fifa competitions, including the next World Cup, if plans go ahead.
Concacaf, the confederation of North America and the Caribbean, as well as the Asian Football Confederation have joined Uefa in officially rejecting the proposal, before Infantino's senior advisor Carlos Cordeiro resigned from his post.
Lamour has now given a statement to The **** ociated Press outlining that Fifa staff "deserve better than contempt and intimidation" after being left in the dark about Infantino's privatisation scheme.
"What has been announced in recent days and what has been happening behind the scenes in recent months defies belief and imagination," Lamour said, who has worked closely with Infantino at both Fifa and Uefa.

#fifa #confederation

GENEVA (AP) — Two senior FIFA officials criticized Gianni Infantino's World Cup sell-off plan Friday with one resigning as a presidential adviser and a second saying staff were deceived by project that must not go ahead.
Carlos Cordeiro, who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned in protest at the private equity plan.
Politics: Fox World Cup **** yst Calls Trump 'The Soccer President'
"I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup," Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker, said in a statement resigning as adviser to FIFA President Gianni Infantino that urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.
FIFA's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said in a statement to The **** ociated Press staff were "deceived" by Infantino's lack of openness planning the private investor scheme and "deserve better than contempt and intimidation."

#cordeiro

July 31 (UPI) -- Carlos Cordeiro resigned as a FIFA senior adviser to protest a plan to sell stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private equity investors, he announced Friday.
The former United States Soccer Federation president said he "had no involvement in the proposal," which he called a "bad deal for football" and the long-term future of the game.
Cordeiro worked closely alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino and came with him to visit President Donald Trump at the White House. He represented FIFA on the White House Task Force for the 2026 World Cup.
"As a senior adviser to the FIFA president, a former banker and a lifelong football fan, I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup," Cordeiro wrote.
"Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally. It is a bad deal for FIFA's member ****** ociations, a bad deal for football and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game."

#fifa #cordeiro #deal

In the aftermath of the World Cup, despite the many issues that had plagued the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Gianni Infantino spoke in tones that suggested he felt invincible. By delivering record revenues and the "most outstanding" World Cup ever, the Fifa president felt emboldened enough to embark on a victory lap, admonishing his critics from within the stronghold of his Fifa palace, while safe in the knowledge that the structures and mechanisms designed to keep him in power were secure.
Barely a week later, the walls around Infantino are crumbling before our eyes. In over-playing his hand and rushing through proposals to sell stakes in the World Cup and Fifa tournaments to private investors, Infantino has crossed a line from where there may not return. Uefa's extraordinary decision to boycott the World Cup should Infantino get his way has been followed by two more federations, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, rejecting his proposals. Uefa now has enough support to comfortably defeat Infantino if a vote of Fifa's 211 member **** ociations goes ahead next month.
The walls around Gianni Infantino are crumbling (Getty)
Whether Infantino's plans, understood by The Independent to have been in the works for over a year, even survive for that long is another matter. Infantino is also under mounting pressure from within Fifa itself. The president's long-time adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, described as a heavyweight figure within the organisation, resigned in protest on Friday. "Football has been central to my life, and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this **** et and the consequences of giving part of it away," he said in a statement. "That is why this proposal should be rejected." If even the Fifa suits have seen enough, it tells you that Infantino has gone too far.
In their own statement in the early hours of Friday morning, Fifa provided some "clarifications" around their private investment proposals, insisting that their "planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports". But it may not stop some of Infantino's steadfast allies from switching sides. Asia will host the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia and parts of the region have benefitted greatly from Infantino's support since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but the AFC's president, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, has been Infantino's most vocal critic outside of Europe. A withering statement on Friday accused Fifa of "undermining" the World Cup and called for an "urgent review" into its governance.

#infantino #fifa #around #statement