After being initially disqualified from the Confederation of African Football’s elective congress, four-time African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto’o has won the right to be added to the list of candidates.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld Eto’o’s appeal against his exclusion from the CAF executive committee elections in Cairo next Wednesday.
In January, the Cameroon Football Federation president was disqualified by CAF’s governance committee, but he took his case to sport’s highest court, the CAS, which decided in his favour.
“Following a hearing on 3 March 2025, it is ordered that the CAF executive committee includes Eto’o in the list of candidates for election to the committee,” said a CAS statement.
“The CAS Panel considered that it was presented sufficient information to overturn the CAF Executive Committee’s decision concerning Eto’o’s ineligibility.
“It will be for the CAF Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting on 12 March to make its own evaluation of the candidates.”
The 43-year-old former Cameroon striker was suspended by both CAF and FIFA, the world football governing bodies, last year, but no explanation was offered when CAF excluded him in January.
After he allegedly verbally abused match officials during the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia in September, FIFA banned him from all national team games for six months for breaking disciplinary rules.
Earlier in the year, CAF banned Eto’o after an inquiry into purported breaches of its ethical and integrity standards when he took up a role as ambassador for a betting company.
The ban and a $200,000 fine were later revoked after an appeal.
Although the fiery Eto’o is one of Africa’s greatest players, he has proven to be a contentious figure in the game’s administration both domestically and internationally.
CAF will hold elections next week for its top positions, including the president of the organisation and the continent’s representatives on the FIFA Council.
The deadline for submitting candidates was in November, but with the election less than a week away, the governing body of African football has yet to release a list of candidates.