Due to an Ebola outbreak in their country, members of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national football team must isolate before entering the US for the World Cup.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, confirmed on Friday that the Congolese delegation must maintain a bubble where they currently are training in Belgium and isolate for 21 days or risk being denied entry.
DRC is in Group K for this year’s World Cup in North America. Its first game is against Portugal on June 17 in Houston, 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 US. We cannot be any clearer.”
All of DRC’s team members, along with French head coach Sebastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country. Most play professionally in Europe, including defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham United) and forward Yoane Wissa (Newcastle United) in England’s Premier League and captain and defender Chancel Mbemba (Lille) in France’s Ligue 1.
Giuliani said the US is not taking any chances when it comes to health and safety issues surrounding the World Cup.
“We want to make sure that there is nothing that’s going to come in or near our borders here on this,” he said.
Earlier this month, DRC confirmed an outbreak of a rare form of Ebola called Bundibugyo. More than 130 people have died among the nearly 600 suspected cases.
DRC cancelled its training camp in the capital city of Kinshasa amid the outbreak and relocated to Belgium, where the team has a friendly scheduled against Denmark in Liege on June 3. DRC also has a friendly scheduled against Chile in southern Spain on June 9.
