The Indomitable Lionesses' WAFCON 2026 triumph is no isolated event: it fits within an Eto'o presidency that began in December 2021, marked by several deep structural projects the public hasn't always fully appreciated. The most emblematic of them just reached its conclusion, a few kilometers from the stadium where the Lionesses were already preparing for Morocco.
Fecafoot's new headquarters, in Yaoundé's Warda district, was inaugurated on May 13, 2026, in the presence of CAF president Patrice Motsepe. A conclusion far from trivial: launched in 2012 under Iya Mohamed's presidency, the project was halted in 2013 after his arrest, then stalled again in 2018 under Seidou Mbombo Njoya, mired in a legal dispute with contractor Guimar. It took a Centre Court of Appeal ruling in July 2020, siding against the former contractor, and a new tender won by PAC International, before work finally resumed under Samuel Eto'o, who had made it a priority from day one. A file over a decade old, now definitively closed.
On the purely footballing side, the federation has also pushed through a reform long demanded by domestic league stakeholders: as of August 2026, a minimum salary scale for Elite One and Elite Two clubs, with an estimated salary floor of 5.1 million FCFA for a 23-player squad. Fecafoot also tied the release of state subsidies — 560 million FCFA for player salaries — to clubs proving they had actually paid their players. Another notable shift: the federation now directly handles national team coaches' pay, closing a grey area that had previously destabilized several technical staffs.
Not everything is settled, however. The national players' union (Synafoc) denounced the lack of consultation around the new salary scale, and several financially struggling clubs threatened to withdraw from the championship rather than comply. As necessary as the reform may be, it is advancing through friction more than consensus — a reminder that modernizing a league with limited resources cannot happen overnight.
Internationally, Cameroon continues exporting talent to Europe's top leagues: Carlos Baleba, developed at Lille before establishing himself at Brighton, was this summer set to join Manchester United for around €70 million; Fred Ondoa Onambele signed his first professional contract with ESTAC Troyes; Franck Magri joined Qatar's Al-Gharafa. A growing visibility for Cameroonian players that, while not solely the product of federal action, coincides with a period in which Fecafoot claims tighter management of its domestic competitions — the natural breeding ground for these careers.
The Lionesses' continental title, with a direct berth to the 2027 Women's World Cup attached, crowns a mixed but genuine record: structural projects finally completed, financial discipline imposed not without resistance, and, for the first time, a major title on the federation's honors list. A reminder, for those who only months ago doubted Eto'o's presidency would ever end in a trophy, that the jinx has just been broken.
What remains is turning this momentum into consistency. In the months ahead, Fecafoot will need to show that this victory is not a finish line but a foothold — for women's football as much as for a domestic league still fragile, but now engaged, by its own stakeholders' admission, on a path of reconstruction.
