23.5.2026
Congo DR Leopards risk missing out of the FIFA World Cup starting next month in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
As an Ebola outbreak continues to ravage the country, the US authorities have issued a warning for the team to isolate for 21 days, otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed in the country
DR Congo are training in Belgium after their training camp – scheduled to take place in Kinshasa – was cancelled.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, said the squad must remain in a “bubble” in Belgium.
“They need to maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to travel to the United States. We cannot be any clearer,” he told ESPN.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has banned entry from non-Americans who have been in the DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.
All DR Congo’s players are based outside the country and will not be affected by the restrictions now the training camp has been cancelled.
“If there are other people that are going to be coming in, they need to have a separate bubble from that team,” Giuliani said.
“If they end up coming, and any of those people end up symptomatic, they are risking the entire team being able to come and compete in this World Cup.”
Dr Congo are due to play friendlies against Denmark on 3 June in Belgium and Chile on 9 June in Spain.
The World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July, and DR Congo play Portugal in their opening game on 17 June BBC reports
Aaron Wan-Bissaka...top Congo DR player.