Spain’s mayor of La Linea de la Concepción has banned friendlies between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chile, citing health concerns.
Published June 3, 2026
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is keen to play its pre-World Cup friendly against Chile behind closed doors, head coach Sebastian Desabres has said.
The 49-year-old Frenchman made the offer after the mayor of the Spanish town where the match was scheduled to host canceled it on Tuesday, citing health concerns over the Ebola outbreak in the African country.
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Juan Franco, the mayor of La Linea de la Concepción in southern Spain, near the border with Gibraltar, said: “We have signed a decree banning the June 9 match between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chile.”
Franco said this was a “precautionary measure” and in accordance with the recommendations of the health department of the Andalusian regional government.
Desabre also spoke at a press conference on Tuesday, on the eve of a friendly against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, and said he remained hopeful that the game would be played in Spain.
“There are other stadiums. There are also options to play without fans. There are several possibilities. I can’t comment too much on that.”
“The one thing I can say is that we are used to adapting and no matter what happens, we have no problem adapting to all these situations.”
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which qualified for the World Cup for the first time since representing Zaire in 1974, canceled a scheduled pre-World Cup training camp in the country and are instead based in Belgium after the country was hit by an Ebola outbreak last month.
Desabre said all necessary precautions are being taken.
“Of course, we are following the restrictions related to FIFA regarding medical organization. The doctors are in contact with FIFA,” he said.
“Honestly, we’re running a completely normal training camp like any other camp. All the players are from Europe. Our local staff have met the travel deadlines, so it doesn’t affect us on a day-to-day basis at all.”
An outbreak of highly contagious hemorrhagic fever was declared in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in mid-May.
U.S. officials announced on May 22 that Congo’s national team will need to quarantine for 21 days before being allowed to enter the United States for the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19 and is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
They will be based in Houston, Texas during the tournament, and are scheduled to play Portugal in their first Group K match on June 17th.
DRC will then travel to Guadalajara, Mexico to play Colombia on June 24th before returning to the United States to play Uzbekistan on June 28th in Atlanta, Georgia.
The FIFA World Cup begins on June 11th. Check out Al Jazeera’s dedicated 2026 World Cup page for all the latest news, fixtures and live text commentary, and stay up to date with group standings, real-time results and schedules.
