Cameroon Football Federation president Samuel Eto’o has thrown his support behind Gianni Infantino ahead of the FIFA presidential election, arguing that the FIFA chief has played a significant role in improving opportunities for African football.

• Eto’o backs Infantino for FIFA presidency.

• He praises his impact on African football.

• Eto’o calls for resources for African football.

The former Cameroon captain believes the continent’s football associations have benefited from Infantino’s leadership, particularly through increased development support and greater representation at the World Cup.

“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 quickly, and we have to recognise that. We should support him for everything he has achieved so far.”

Eto’o also pointed to the increased number of African teams competing at the expanded 48-team World Cup as evidence of the opportunities created under Infantino.

Africa secured nine automatic qualification places for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States, 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,” the former Cameroon forward added.

Infantino is expected to seek another term when FIFA members gather for the presidential election on March 18, 2027.

While backing Infantino, Eto’o said African football associations operate under very different financial conditions from their counterparts in Europe.

He argued that many African federations remain heavily dependent on government funding, making it difficult for them to compete financially with football’s wealthiest nations.

“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.”

According to Eto’o, the financial gap also has a direct impact on the ability of African countries to develop and retain top-level players.

He suggested that Cameroon could have produced players of the calibre of France internationals Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni if the country’s football system had access to significantly greater resources.

“If we in Cameroon had the possibility of relying on a budget of $20m or $40m 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’s comments come at a time when relations between FIFA and UEFA have become increasingly strained.

UEFA has challenged several aspects of FIFA’s handling of its commercial and financial plans, including the abandoned proposal involving FIFA Forward Enterprise, a proposed subsidiary that would have held commercial rights connected to major FIFA competitions.

European football’s governing body has also pursued access to FIFA-related documents in the United States as part of efforts connected to a possible criminal complaint in Switzerland involving Infantino and other FIFA officials and advisers.

UEFA has separately proposed developing a different mechanism for distributing resources through FIFA’s existing Forward programme.

Eto’o believes Africa should have a strong voice in determining FIFA’s direction, rather than allowing the priorities of wealthier football confederations to dominate.

“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.