FIFA adviser resigns, COO accuses Infantino of deceiving staff on private equity plan

Two of FIFA's highest-ranking officials have openly broken with president Gianni Infantino over a private equity restructuring that would sell a permanent stake in the World Cup, according to ESPN's reporting on July 31. The rupture marks a rare and escalating public challenge to a power structure that has held for more than a decade.

Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and former U.S. Soccer Federation president, resigned as an adviser to Infantino following the proposal's emergence. Cordeiro represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup and had joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years.

"I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup," Cordeiro stated, according to ESPN. He called the proposal "a bad deal for football" and said, "I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally."

Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer since 2024, escalated the dissent further. A French official and long-time colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and UEFA, Lamour told ESPN that staff were "deceived" by Infantino's lack of openness in planning the scheme. "It is the project of one person," Lamour said. He added: "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." When asked whether he would stay in his role if the project continued, Lamour stated, "If that means I lose my job, then so be it."

Infantino's proposal would spin off FIFA's commercial businesses, including men's and women's World Cups and Club World Cups, into a $20 billion subsidiary with private investors owning 20 percent. The anchor investor is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, according to ESPN. The deal would raise $4.2 billion, per Cordeiro's statement.

Cordeiro argued that FIFA does not need the capital. Per ESPN, Cordeiro stated that FIFA generated $15 billion in revenue over the last four years, largely tied to the men's World Cup that just ended. "FIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources. The organization sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt," Cordeiro said, according to ESPN. Selling a permanent stake would be "mortgaging football's future without any compelling justification."

Infantino has been president of FIFA for more than 10 years and had seemed certain to run unopposed in elections scheduled for March 2027. FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for challengers to file. When asked at Camp David on Friday whether he had spoken to Infantino about the proposal, President Donald Trump told reporters, "No, I never spoke to him," per ESPN's reporting.

Infantino has not publicly responded to either Cordeiro's resignation or Lamour's accusation of deception, according to the sources reviewed. Cordeiro resigned as U.S. Soccer president in 2020 following pressure over court filings in the equal pay lawsuit for the U.S. women's national team.