US demand
World Cup team has to go into Ebola isolation
05/23/2026 – 01:49 amReading time: 2 minutes
Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This now has consequences for the country’s national football team before the World Cup.
The White House is requiring the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national soccer team to quarantine for 21 days before the team is allowed to travel to the United States for the World Cup. The background is an Ebola outbreak in the team’s home country, as AFP reports.
Andrew Giuliani, the White House World Cup envoy, made the condition clear to ESPN television: “We’ve been very clear with Congo: They have to be in their bubble for 21 days before they can come to Houston.” The team is currently preparing for the tournament in Belgium and wants to set up its World Cup headquarters in Houston.
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The national team of the Democratic Republic of Congo had already canceled a planned three-day training camp and a farewell event with fans in the capital Kinshasa because of the Ebola outbreak in the east of the country. As team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told the AP news agency, further preparation for the World Cup will take place abroad.
The World Cup will take place from June 11th to July 19th in the USA, Mexico and Canada. It is only the second World Cup participation for the DR Congo. The first group game against Portugal is scheduled for June 17th in Houston. The team will play further preliminary round games in Guadalajara in Mexico and in Atlanta.
The World Health Organization (WHO) rates the risk to public health in the DR Congo as “very high”. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva that the virus was continuing to spread rapidly in the country. The number of suspected cases is now more than 700.
The epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo variant of the Ebola virus, which was first detected in 2007. There is neither a vaccine nor a targeted treatment against this rare variant. The mortality rate is 30 to 50 percent.