FIFA accused of 'management by fear' after key executive's sudden exit

Lise Klaveness, the head of Norwegian football, believes FIFA is exhibiting "management by fear" after the exit of COO Kevin Lamour.

Lamour was one of the FIFA executives who was outspoken against president Gianni Infantino's controversial plan to sell off the World Cup.

Klaveness believes Lamour's exit is "a firing situation, it's not a resignation".

The head of Norwegian football has accused FIFA of fear tactics for the removal of a senior official who publicly opposed FIFA president Gianni Infantino's now-withdrawn World Cup sell-off plan.

Lise Klaveness, the head of the Norwegian Football Federation since 2022, told the Associated Press that the firing of FIFA's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour was "unacceptable" and urged other senior leaders to resist potentially damaging orders.

Mr Lamour's exit on Tuesday (AEST) came 17 days after his statement to AP criticising Mr Infantino's $US20 billion ($28.1 billion) private equity project, which was withdrawn hours later.

"Now he is thrown out and we are supposed to move on. It's unacceptable, it's management by fear," Ms Klaveness told the AP in a telephone interview, describing Mr Lamour as "the best football administrator I have ever met".

"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," Ms Klaveness added, especially targeting FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström.

Ms Klaveness represented Norway 73 times as a player, is a judge in Oslo and an elected executive committee member at European football body UEFA.

She has built on her country's long-held reputation as a champion of good governance in soccer.

Last week the Norwegian federation's board called on Mr Infantino to resign and has backed a London-based NGO's formal complaint to FIFA ethics investigators about his political ties to US President Donald Trump.

Mr Lamour was a long-time colleague of Mr Infantino, first when they were senior officials at UEFA from 2007-15. He was involved in Mr Infantino's campaign to be elected FIFA president in 2016 and moved two years ago from UEFA to oversee much of FIFA's operations in Zurich.

With a reputation among the most trusted executives in the often murky world of global football politics, Mr Lamour's pointed criticisms of Mr Infantino's leadership intensified a crisis for the FIFA president.

A backlash from UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and north American soccer body CONCACAF was provoked by a secretive plan to sell future World Cup profits to investors led by Joshua Kushner.