Eto’o backs Infantino as pressure mounts on the FIFA president ahead of his 2027 re-election bid. The FECAFOOT chief says African football has benefited from Infantino’s leadership and should recognise his contribution to the game.
He made his position clear to L’Equipe, the French sports paper. Infantino, he said, has changed the game for Africa. National federations have developed faster under him, not slower.
“President Gianni Infantino has changed football,” Eto’o told the paper. He added that African federations owe the FIFA boss some recognition for what he has built.
Few African federation chiefs speak this openly. Eto’o backs Infantino without much hedging, and that alone makes the intervention notable.
Eto’o backs Infantino largely because of World Cup expansion. Africa now holds nine automatic qualification places for 2026. The finals span Canada, Mexico and the United States. That is up from five slots at the last tournament in Qatar.
For Eto’o, that jump is proof enough. The former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker went further still. He suggested better funding could one day pull players with African roots back to the continent, rather than losing them to Europe. It touches an old debate about talent drifting from African academies into European set ups.
None of this lands at a comfortable moment for Infantino, though. Reuters reported that UEFA has filed papers in a Manhattan court. The filing seeks documents tied to a scrapped plan. That plan would have moved World Cup and Club World Cup commercial rights into a new investment vehicle. FIFA dropped the idea on 31 July after European federations pushed back hard.
UEFA has not let the matter rest there. The European body is now weighing a criminal complaint in Switzerland. It accuses Infantino of financial mismanagement over how the deal was structured. Several European associations have since pulled their backing for his re-election bid, due in March 2027.
Eto’o backs Infantino right in the middle of that storm. The timing says a lot about the gap between African and European football politics. UEFA sees a governance scandal unfolding. Eto’o sees a leader who reshaped opportunity for federations once shut out of the game’s biggest stage.
He pointed to money as the real divide. Some African federations work with budgets as small as 150,000 euros. Eto’o argues they cannot be judged by the same yardstick as wealthier European associations. That gap, in his view, is exactly why African football should not abandon an ally at FIFA’s top table.
Eto’o backs Infantino, but whether the rest of the continent falls in line is another matter. CAF’s 54 member federations rarely vote as one bloc. Infantino’s troubles in Europe could still spread south, especially before candidates must declare by 18 November. For now, Eto’o backs Infantino loudly and in public, and few figures in African football carry that kind of weight when they pick a side.
The intervention also says something about Eto’o’s own style since taking charge of FECAFOOT. He has built a reputation as a bridge between grassroots frustration at home and the corridors of power in Zurich. This latest move fits that pattern rather than breaking from it.
