Cameroon Football Federation president Samuel Eto’o has thrown his support behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino, saying African football has benefited from his leadership and the greater opportunities given to the continent at the World Cup.
Speaking to French outlet L’Equipe, the former Cameroon striker said Infantino had played a major role in speeding up the development of African football associations.
“President Gianni Infantino has changed football,” Eto’o said.
“Mr. Infantino has helped our continent. He has helped our federations develop much more quickly, and we have to recognise that. We should support him for everything he has achieved so far.”
Eto’o pointed specifically to the expansion of the World Cup, with Africa now having nine direct places at the 48-team tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States this summer, up from five at the 2022 edition in Qatar.
“He has given opportunities to nations that had never had the chance to take part in the greatest tournament of all, the World Cup,” Eto’o added.
Infantino has already announced that he will seek another term as FIFA president at the FIFA Congress on March 18, 2027.
Eto’o’s backing comes as relations between FIFA and European football’s governing body UEFA have become increasingly strained.
UEFA had opposed FIFA’s now-abandoned proposal to transfer commercial rights linked to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup to a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would have allowed outside investors to take a stake.
Although FIFA said the plan had been permanently withdrawn, UEFA has continued to challenge how the proposal was handled. It has also sought permission from a US court to obtain evidence for a potential criminal complaint in Switzerland involving Infantino and other FIFA officials and advisers.
UEFA has instead said it would work with partners and stakeholders on a new approach to distributing resources through the existing FIFA Forward programme.
For Eto’o, however, African football cannot necessarily be expected to see FIFA’s policies through the same lens as Europe’s wealthier football nations.
He pointed to the financial gap facing African football associations, many of which depend heavily on government funding.
“When you see some federations with budgets of 150,000 euros, how can they compete against the big countries?” he said. “We will never be able to have the same perception of things as the big countries.”
The former Barcelona and Inter Milan forward also argued that a lack of resources has made it harder for African countries to retain and develop their best young talent, with many eventually moving to Europe.
“If we in Cameroon had the possibility of relying on a budget of $20 million or $40 million per year, of course we would have had players like (Kylian) Mbappe and (Aurelien) Tchouameni,” he said, referring to the France internationals who have Cameroonian family ties.
Eto’o acknowledged UEFA’s importance to world football but rejected the idea that Europe should be viewed as FIFA’s dominant confederation.
“UEFA is an important confederation for FIFA. It contributes enormously to football, but it should not be considered the only or the most important confederation,” he added.
Reuters
