Lamour Out as Infantino Tightens Control Over Fifa
Kevin Lamour knew exactly what was coming. He said as much when he stood up to Gianni Infantino’s latest grand plan to carve up the World Cup and flog chunks of it to private investors. “If this means I lose my job, then so be it,” the then Fifa chief operating officer told colleagues. “At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”
He won the argument. He lost the job.
Lamour had dismissed the proposal as “the project of one person”, accusing Fifa’s administration of having been “deceived” by its own president. The scheme, which threatened to sell off part of football’s biggest show potentially on the cheap, collapsed within days once it was exposed last month. The holidays of reporters loitering in hotel lobbies across North America may have been ruined, but Infantino’s wheeze was quietly shelved.
The price for Lamour arrived on Monday. “Fifa can confirm that the working relationship between Fifa and Kevin Lamour as Fifa’s Chief Operating Officer has ended on 17 August 2026,” blared a statement. “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.”
No explanation. No detail. Just a clean, clinical goodbye for the man who dared say no.
‘Management by Fear’
If Fifa were banking on the story ending there, they misread the room. Lise Klaveness, the outspoken president of the Norwegian Football Association and a persistent irritant for Infantino, needed no invitation.
“Now he is thrown out and we are supposed to move on,” she snapped. “It’s unacceptable, it’s management by fear.” Lamour, she said, was the best football administrator she had ever met. Her message to those still inside the glass walls of Zurich was blunt: “Now we also have to call upon Fifa leadership and the administration to not submit to orders you know are not in the interests of football.”
The chances of that rallying cry transforming Fifa’s culture feel slim. The Geopolitics World Cup and its fallout already showed how little dissent tends to dent the president’s armour. Infantino continues to cling to power like a barnacle on a ship’s hull, and those around him know it.
Klaveness’s words were widely read as a pointed jab at Mattias Grafström, the Swedish Fifa official understood to have carried out the sacking at Infantino’s behest. In an email to staff, Grafström tried to paint the moment as a bump in the road rather than a rupture.
“Individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go,” he wrote. “The institution, its mission and its responsibility towards world football continue.”
The message was clear enough: people are disposable, the machine rolls on. For now, the sackings look set to keep coming until morale, somehow, improves.
Guardiola, Passion and a Public Confession
While one power struggle plays out in Zurich, another kind of drama is laid bare on screen. In a new Amazon documentary, Pep Guardiola is shown turning his own private life into a team talk.
“Guys I want to confess something, I’m [eff]ing divorced from the most beautiful woman on your planet,” he tells his players. “It’s my wife, my ex-wife – I love her unbelievably, but we lost the passion. For many reasons, we lost the passion. I love her? Yes, absolutely. She loves me? Yes, but we lost the passion.”
Then the pivot. “How do you play football, because you are paid? Or because of something inside? Where is the passion? In your life, whatever you are going to do, do it with passion. I don’t want any good players. I want players with passion.”
The film also captures another personal flashpoint: a major row between the former Manchester City manager and Kyle Walker. Elite football, as ever, leaves nowhere to hide.
Letters, Wages and a Wizard Behind the Curtain
The postbag has been busy. Anthony Brady wrote in after spotting that Monday’s Memory Lane ended with a template-style line: “(insert name of whoever is in the news as being on the end of a bad foul, bad behaviour, etc, here)”. For him, it felt like a Wizard of Oz moment, the curtain tugged back to reveal “(insert witty denouement here)”.
On money, Stewart McGuinness did the maths. If the average Premier League player earns about £5m a year – roughly £100,000 a week – then one week’s wage now eclipses what Jimmy Greaves made across his entire career. Go back to Tom Finney, Jackie Milburn or Nat Lofthouse and the gulf stretches even wider.
And Bob Cushion, seeking refuge from the football, was relieved to find Rob Smyth criticising a bad film and not the tenor Beniamino Gigli, who he rates as the finest of the lot.
Anthony Brady takes the (prizeless) letter of the day.
Limbs in the Canton End
The word “limbs” has been flogged to death on social media, slapped on any half-decent celebration behind a goal. On Monday night in Cardiff, it actually fit.
Rubin Colwill’s 98th-minute free-kick for Cardiff City against Wrexham sparked Proper Limbs in the Canton End at Cardiff City Stadium. Cardiff, back in the Championship, had trailed since early on after their former striker Kieffer Moore put Wrexham in front. They huffed and puffed for more than 90 minutes in front of over 30,000 fans in the capital.
Then Colwill stepped up. One swing, top corner, bedlam. Blue shirts flying everywhere, bodies tumbling over seats, strangers locked in bear hugs. Even head coach Brian Barry-Murphy ended up in the crowd, swallowed by the chaos. Old-school Championship chaos, at that.
Transfers, Power Plays and a New Job for Vieira
Away from the politics and the pandemonium, the transfer machine keeps grinding.
Rodri landed in Barcelona on Monday to complete his move from Manchester City, describing it as a “dream” to join the Catalan club. He will undergo his medical on Tuesday. “There have been some very intense days, but I’m happy that everything has been resolved,” he said.
At Chelsea, the ownership picture could shift again. Chair Todd Boehly and director Mark Walter are weighing up selling their shares to the majority owners, Clearlake Capital, a move that would hand the private equity firm full control of the club. The stakes at Stamford Bridge, already high, would rise again.
Coventry City have secured Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest for £9m, while Ipswich Town have raided Strasbourg, signing Abdoul Ouattara and Julio Enciso from Gary O’Neil’s former club. Newcastle United, still reshaping their back line, have announced the £30m capture of defender Amar Dedic from Benfica.
On the international stage, Patrick Vieira has a new challenge. Born in Dakar, the former Arsenal captain has been appointed manager of Senegal, returning to lead the country of his birth.
Memory Lane: Leeds’ Measured Title Party
One final snapshot from another era. Leeds United, under Don Revie, celebrating their first league title in 1969. Nine players in the shot. Four bottles of champagne. Two cigars. One cigarette.
By the standards of the time, that counted as restraint. By the standards of today’s game – with its private jets, private equity and private briefings – it feels like a different sport entirely.
Which only sharpens the question hanging over Zurich: who, exactly, is still fighting for the interests of football?
