May 23 (Reuters) – The Democratic Republic of Congo have no plans to change their preparations for the 2026 World Cup despite a warning from the United States that the team must isolate for 21 days before arriving in the country, a team official said on Saturday.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, confirmed to ESPN on Friday that the Congolese delegation needed to maintain a bubble where they are training in Belgium and isolate for 21 days or risk being denied entry after a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in the central African country.
The Congolese team are to be based in Houston at the tournament and will play an opening Group K fixture against Portugal on June 17, followed by matches against Colombia on June 23 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and against Uzbekistan on June 27 in Atlanta.
“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 11,” Giuliani told ESPN.
“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.”
But a team spokesperson said that at this stage there was no change to their schedule, which includes a friendly against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and another against Chile in Cadiz, Spain, six days later.
“We have kept our training programme. No player in the squad has come from DR Congo,” the official said.
The entire squad of players are based outside the DR Congo, mostly in Europe, including coach Sebastien Desabre. A few team officials arrived at the training camp in Belgium from the DRC earlier 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 trip has been cancelled.
The World Health Organization on Friday raised to “very high” the risk of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the DRC and has declared the outbreak there and in neighbouring Uganda an emergency of international concern.
Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded following the outbreak in DRC.
(Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Clare Fallon)
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