African Football Legend Samuel Eto’o has been elected president of the Cameroon Football Federation, and will run the affairs of football in the country for 4 years.
The four-time African Footballer of the Year defeated rival Seidou Mbombo Njoya, at an elective General Assembly held on Saturday.
Seven candidates were set to contest the elections, but five of them pulled out on the morning of the elections.
The former Barcelona, Chelsea and Inter Milan star gained 43 votes to beat acting president Njoya, who collected 31.
The vote was held after the Court of Arbitration for Sport in January annulled Njoya’s victory in a 2018 election.
When filing his candidacy on 17 November, Eto’o, a four-time African footballer of the year, said: “I will be the next president of the federation despite all the cheating.”
Eto’o said Njoya, who he supported in 2018, had “failed miserably”.
Eto’o, 40, has promised a wide range of reforms to thrive the sport.
We have to bring footballers to the centre of our policies,” he said afterwards. “It is our role to ensure that those who play this discipline make a decent living out of it.”
Cameroon will host the African Cup of Nations in January, a tournament delayed a year by the Covid-19 pandemic.