Cameroon football chief backs FIFA President, highlights Africa-Europe financial gap in football

Cameroon football chief backs FIFA President, highlights Africa-Europe financial gap in football Cameroon Football Federation President Samuel Eto’o backed FIFA President Gianni Infantino, crediting him with accelerating the development of African football and giving more countries from the continent an opportunity to compete at the World Cup on Wednesday. “President Gianni Infantino has changed football,” Eto’o said in an interview with French sports newspaper L’Equipe. “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.” The former Cameroon forward said Infantino had also expanded opportunities for countries that had previously been unable to qualify for the World Cup. “He has given opportunities to nations that had never had the chance to take part in the greatest tournament of all, the World Cup,” he said. Africa had nine direct places at the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, compared with five at the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Infantino has said he will seek re-election as FIFA president at the organization’s Congress on March 18, 2027. Eto’o’s comments come amid tensions between FIFA and UEFA over the governing body’s financial and commercial policies.​​​​​​​ Eto’o, however, said African and European football federations could not be expected to view FIFA policies from the same perspective because of the significant differences in their financial resources. “UEFA is an important confederation for FIFA and contributes greatly to football, but it should not be viewed as the only or most important confederation,” he said. “When you see some federations with budgets of 150,000 euros, how can they compete against the big countries? We will never be able to have the same perception of things as the big countries.” He also linked the financial disparity to the loss of African talent to European football, arguing that greater investment could allow countries such as Cameroon to develop and retain more elite players. “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 Mbappe and Tchouameni,” he said, referring to France internationals Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni, who have Cameroonian family ties. news_share_descriptionsubscription_contact LATEST NEWS Zelenskyy says he hopes to meet US envoys in Kyiv in ‘coming days’ Successive heat waves hit museum, monument revenues in France Around 100 Nepali nationals missing in Tibet after flash floods across border with China US imposes new sanctions on Cuba's ruling elite, energy and mining entities UK, France discuss setting up SCALP missile assembly lines in Ukraine Eisenkot leads Netanyahu as Israeli election blocs remain deadlocked: Poll Türkiye slams European Parliament over ‘slander’ targeting Turkish Armed Forces Hamilton hopeful Ferrari can win at Monza with engine upgrade