Sunday, May 24, 2026 -The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) have no plans to change their preparations for the World Cup despite a warning from the United States that the national team must isolate for 21 days before arriving in the country, The Guardian reports.
Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House
Task Force for the World Cup, told ESPN that US officials had informed FIFA,
the DRC team and the government in Kinshasa that the squad was to remain in a
bubble in Belgium, where players are training, due to the African country’s
deadly Ebola outbreak.
“We’ve been very clear to Congo that they should maintain
the integrity of their bubble for 21 days before they can then come to Houston
on June 11th,” Giuliani said. “We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government
as well, that they need to maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to
travel to the United States. We cannot be any clearer. We want to make sure
there is nothing that’s going to come in or near our borders.”
In a separate statement to AFP sent by the US Department of
Homeland Security, Giuliani emphasized that the priority was the “safety and
security of the American people, participating teams, and millions of fans”.
US officials said this week that the DRC squad would be
exempt from a travel ban that temporarily bars entry to the US for
non-Americans who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous
21 days.
“We encourage the team to protect their players from
unneeded exposure and maintain the integrity of their bubble to ensure that
they are able to participate in the tournament,” Giuliani said.
However, a DR Congo team spokesperson said there was no
change to their schedule, which includes a friendly against Denmark in Liège on
3 June and another against Chile in Cádiz six days later. “We have kept our
training programme. No player in the squad has come from DRC,” the official
said.
The entire squad of players are based outside the DRC,
mostly in Europe, as is the coach, Sébastien Desabre. A few team officials
arrived at the training camp in Belgium from the DR Congo this week. The team
had planned a three-day trip to Kinshasa next week as a celebratory send-off
before they head to their first World Cup in 52 years, but that has been
cancelled
The World Health Organization on Friday raised to “very
high” the risk of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no
approved vaccines or treatments, turning into a national outbreak in the DRC
and has declared the outbreak there and in neighbouring Uganda an emergency of
international concern
It listed 82 confirmed cases and seven confirmed deaths in
the DR Congo, but almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths
DR Congo have qualified for the World Cup for only the
second time after playing in 1974, when the country was known as Zaire. They
planned to be based in Houston during the tournament, where they will play
their first Group K match on 17 June against Portugal.
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