By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – You might have thought that Samuel Eto’o, as arguably Cameroon’s greatest ever footballing icon, would be backing his compatriot Issa Hayatou when African nations go to the polls on Thursday to decide whether to give Hayatou an unprecedented eighth term or go for Madagascan challenger Ahmad Ahmad.
But Eto’o has joined those who say enough is enough and is urging his fellow countryman, who briefly ran FIFA during the transition period between Sepp Blatter and Gianni Infantino, to call it a day after 29 years at the helm of FIFA’s largest individual confederation.
Hayatou remains odds-on to clinch victory, an unpalatable situation for Infantino who recently got rid of the veteran 71-year-old as head of FIFA’s finance committee, perhaps in revenge at Hayatou backing Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa when the Bahraini took on and lost to Infantino in FIFA’s own presidential election just over a year ago.
Eto’o, four-times African Footballer of the Year, said: “Issa Hayatou has done a lot for African football – and I believe he has been thinking about his own succession, to perpetuate the good work he has led.
“But no institution can resist the laws of cycles and change. I want to see changes that will help African football to evolve. We should bring freshness to open up other horizons, to prolong and improve what has been accomplished.”
Thursday’s ballot among the 54 full members of the Confederation of African Football (two are non-voting associate members) is expected to be a tight affair with unconfirmed reports suggesting that Hayatou campaign strategists have been unsuccessfully entreating Ahmad to pull out and instead be compensated with a seat in the FIFA Council.
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