FIFA said Monday that Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour had left the organization, weeks after publicly criticizing President Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell a stake in the commercial rights to the World Cup and other major tournaments.

Lamour joined FIFA’s senior leadership team in November 2024, having previously been part of Infantino’s inner circle during the campaign that secured his election as FIFA president in 2016.

“FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer has ended on 17 August 2026,” a FIFA spokesperson said Monday.

“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 publicly criticized the commercial rights proposal last month, saying FIFA staff had been “deceived” about the plan and calling it “the project of one person.”

“Our mission ... is to serve football, not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service,” Lamour said.

Lamour’s comments came soon after Carlos Cordeiro, a senior adviser to Infantino, resigned in protest of the proposal, calling it “a bad deal for football.” Infantino withdrew the proposal later that same day.

The backlash to the plan to create a $20 billion subsidiary and sell up to a 20% stake to private equity investors to raise $4.2 billion has not abated, however.

Infantino’s bid for reelection to a fourth term as president in March next year, which once appeared to be a formality, is now far from certain.

Powerful European confederation UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF are opposed to the 56-year-old Swiss president, although he retains the support of the African and South American confederations.

Human rights in sport organization FairSquare confirmed Monday that it had written to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee, known as the GACC, urging it to rule Infantino ineligible to seek another term as president.

While FIFA presidents are limited to three terms, Infantino successfully argued in 2022 that his first stint in office, from 2016 to 2019, should not count toward that limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.

Infantino was initially elected at an extraordinary congress following the resignation of Sepp Blatter amid a corruption scandal. He was reelected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

“The complaint we have filed provides clear evidence that this is a clear breach of the rules and one that sets a very dangerous precedent,” FairSquare director Nicholas McGeehan told Reuters.

“The rules state clearly that three presidential terms is the maximum allowed. FIFA can’t simply circumvent this rule, which serves as a check on presidential power, by saying that his first term doesn’t count.”

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Last week, UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, which governs football in the Caribbean, North America and Central America, called for an independent review of Infantino’s conduct.

Sources with knowledge of the situation said the three confederations viewed the letter as an opportunity for Infantino to quit with his dignity intact.

Several national associations have also voiced concerns. Scottish Football Association Chief Executive Ian Maxwell told the BBC on Monday that his federation would not support Infantino’s reelection.

FairSquare’s letter to the GACC was drafted with the assistance of Miguel Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s independent Governance and Review Committee, who said the governing body could not disregard its own rules.

“The principle of term limits was a fundamental aspect of the 2016 reform aimed at limiting power, and the rule introduced is clear: no FIFA president can serve more than three terms of office,” Maduro said in a statement.

“Trying to carve out an exception to such a rule for Mr. Infantino reveals both a resistance to the principle of term limits and how some at FIFA conceive of rules not as rules but as obstacles to be circumvented.”

A FairSquare complaint to the International Olympic Committee over Infantino’s alleged breach of the body’s rules on political neutrality because of his support for U.S. President Donald Trump was rejected last month. Infantino has been an IOC member since 2020.