Tomorrow’s Executive Committee election at the Confederation of African Football, CAF, where the FECAFOOT president will be running for the Central African slot, will be the latest episode of what has been an endless twist and turn in the Cameroonian’s journey since he joined the sport’s political landscape.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, will hold its 2025 elective congress in Cairo in Egypt this Wednesday March 12. The gathering will bring together the sport’s key stakeholders from across the continent in what is usually the continental football governing body’s biggest gathering every four years. The major center of attraction during the congress is expected to be the election of CAF’s next president as incumbent supremo, Dr Patrice Motsepe runs for a second four-year term unopposed. For Cameroonians, however, focus will be on the elections of the executive committee of the continental body where former Cameroon international Samule Eto’o Fils who doubles as the president of the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT, will be on the starting block.
Per sources, Eto’o will be among at least 10 candidates in the race for positions in the executive committee. The former FC Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea forward who turned 44 yesterday, will be running to fill the committee’s slot allocated to the representative of the eight member-nation Central African Football Federations’ Union known by its French language abbreviation as UNIFFAC. CAF has not revealed the list of confirmed candidates for the posts. But according to media reports, the highly-storied former football star could face several strong and familiar faces during the election at the UNIFFAC. Notable among those candidates, experts with a good knowledge of the elections say, could be former FECAFOOT president, Seidou Mbomba Njoya who has been representing UNIFFAC in the committee since his election during the 2021 CAF elective congress held on March 12, 2021.
Eto’o Fils’ newest big dance
The CAF election is expected to be the newest chapter of what has been an intensely interesting twist and turn since Eto’o retired from football over five years ago and later fully thrusted himself into the ever-dramatic landscape of sports politics. Primarily, the event will be the first time that the two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner will be gunning for a position since he successfully challenged Mbombo Njoya during the December 11, 2021 presidential election at FECAFOOT. The then 40-year-old Eto’o won the 2021 FECAFOOT election after picking 43 of the overall 74 votes available during the poll, comfortably beating Mbombo Njoya who had headed the federation since 2018 and had come into the highly-mediatized election as an incumbent candidate.
According to pundits and other Cameroonian football experts, the December 2021 election fully marked the change of dynamics to what until that time, had generally been a smooth relationship between Eto’o and Seidou Mbombo Njoya. After Mbombo Njoya successfully ran for the FECAFOOT top job in 2018 where he defeated the likes of former Cameroon international goalkeeper, Joseph Antoine Bell, a great chunk of the credit went to Samuel Eto’o, per those with a good knowledge of the industry. It was reported within the footballing circle that Mbombo Njoya who is now a legislator in Cameroon, easily got the result in the 2018 election due to the backing that he received from the multiple European Champions League winner, Samuel Eto’o.
The move to throw his weight behind Mbombo Njoya at the time, many believed, fully marked the first time that Eto’o was openly engaging in football politicking in Cameroon despite having previously been on the limelight on the same topic.
Possible Eto’o versus Njoya rematch
Almost four years after the FECAFOOT election and some eight years since the equally famous 2018 election at the Cameroonian football governing body, it is believed that the 2025 CAF Executive Committee election race will be yet another big political dance session for the Ex-Everton forward. The rating of the process, many say, is made even more exciting by the possibility that he could indeed, once again, be up against his compatriot Mbombo Njoya, although this time around, at a more prestigious stage; the continental level. Tomorrow’s election, many are saying, could beyond the exciting of serving as a renewed battle between Eto’o and Mbombo Njoya, be more crucial for the former footballer considering the possible impacts that losing or winning at the election could have on the ex-Mallorca man’s political career.
At least, within the sporting landscape. Considered one of the brightest names in African and global football, Eto’o is tipped to gradually rise through the ranks and lead some of the biggest sporting institutions globally. Notable among those bodies, pundits say, is football’s biggest office in Africa; the CAF presidency.
Breaking early barriers
Weeks before tomorrow’s election, Eto’o Fils had been facing difficulties. This was after CAF notably banned him from running in the election on grounds that he had broken several roles. However, last week, the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS, reinstated the Cameroonian back to the race, more than a more after the January 2025 ban. The ruling by CAS which is biggest legal body in sports, further increased the Cameroonian’s values heading into the elections, according to pundits. This, just like it happened to his potential challenger, Mbombo Njoya in March 2021 when he was cleared to run for the same post just hours before the March 21, 2021 elections following an earlier ban placed on him.
