GENEVA (AP) — FIFA's chief operating officer said its staff were deceived by their president Gianni Infantino's World Cup sell-off plan, and suggested on Friday the project must not go ahead.
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Zurich-based executive Kevin Lamour all but invited Infantino to fire him in a statement to The Associated Press that defended his colleagues amid intense fallout from the FIFA boss' 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 the sale over recent months and "deserve better than contempt and intimidation."
"It is the project of one person," Lamour, a long-time colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and European soccer body UEFA, wrote. "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."
