Four-times African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto’o has won the right to be included on the list of candidates for the Confederation of African Football’s elective congress next week after initially being ruled out of the contest.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld an appeal by Eto’o against his exclusion from the CAF executive committee elections in Cairo next Wednesday.
Eto’o, president of the Cameroon Football Federation, was excluded by CAF’s governance committee in January but appealed his case to sport's highest court CAS, who ruled 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.”
No grounds were given when CAF excluded Eto'o in January, but the 43-year-old former Cameroon striker was suspended last year by world soccer’s governing body Fifa and CAF.
In September, Fifa banned him from attending the national team's matches for six months for violating disciplinary regulations, after allegedly verbally abusing match officials at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia.
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 lifted on appeal.
The fiery Eto’o might be one of Africa's finest ever players but he has proven a divisive figure in the administration of the game, both in his own country and in the international arena.
CAF will next week hold elections for its top posts, including the president of organisation and the continent’s representatives on the Fifa Council.
The deadline for submission of candidates was in November but African football’s governing body has failed to publish a list of them with the election less than a week away.
However, CAF president Patrice Motsepe is standing unopposed for a second four-year term.