October 16: Cameroon FA (Fecafoot) stakeholders have written an open letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and confederation presidents, asking why FIFA has failed to act or respond to a complaint first lodged in June 2025 that its president Samuel Eto’o (pictured) pocketed €567,570 that should have been paid to the federation
The case concerns a Russia-Cameroon friendly in 2023 and the payment covers match revenue that had been owed to Fecafoot. Instead, Russia paid the money into Eto’o’s personal account at Qatar National Bank in Doha.
The letter, signed by Guibai Gatama, member of the Executive Committee of FECAFOOT until 2025, accuses Infantino of politically protecting Eto’o.
Eto’o has been Infantino’s most vocal defender in Africa in his battle to retain his presidency amid multiple allegations of corruption, poor and damaging FIFA leadership, including his political support for US President Donald Trump and his attempt to sell FIFA’s commercial rights to a new Trump-linked private equity firm.
“The political support of a football official should have no bearing on how allegations against that official are dealt with,” says Gatama.
“However, the prolonged silence surrounding this case fuels protective suspicions. These suspicions must be independently examined so that they can be corroborated or dispelled by verifiable facts. I ask that you support this examination, including any scrutiny of your own potential role in the handling of the case.”
Gatama submitted his first complaint to FIFA Ethics through its portal on 22 June 2025. In August his legal representative submitted a supplementary complaint and on 28 September 2026, he again referred the matter to the Investigation Chamber of the Ethics Committee, this time presenting new bank details as evidence that Eto’o had embezzled money from Fecafoot.
During all this, FIFA’s ethics body has remained silent.
“After more than fifteen months of efforts, I am still left wondering if the documents submitted to the football ethics bodies will lead to any action,” said Gatama.
It also addresses the presidents of the confederation, Aleksander Čeferin (UEFA), Victor Montagliani (Concacaf) and Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (AFC), asking for their support in presenting Fecafoot’s complaint to the FIFA Council.
“Your public commitments to transparency have raised hopes that football’s resources will be protected and that its leaders will be held accountable,” he says.
“Samuel Eto’o has invoked differences between African and European interests to defend his support for Gianni Infantino. These differences cannot justify different ethical standards.
“We are not too poor to be entitled to responsibility. The scarcity of our resources makes protecting them all the more necessary,” he continues.
“By bringing this matter to the FIFA Council, you can provide a concrete answer to those who claim that your demands for good governance only serve your own interests. You will show that your principles also protect stakeholders in an African federation.”
Gatama, who reflects a growing movement within Africa’s national federations that their leaders are letting down their national football infrastructures as their own personal interests advance, also has a message for CAF president Patrice Motsepe.
“You should be the first person we can count on,” he says. “The dignity of Africa includes the right of an African to hold an African leader to account. Continental solidarity must protect the institutions and the people they serve.
“Why should the actors of Cameroonian football first look to another continent to intervene? I ask you to support this initiative and I ask the Ethics Committee to act. CAF must defend the right of Cameroonians to an effective examination of their complaints, regardless of the prominence of those concerned.”
FIFA has been contacted for comment.
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