{"id":7051,"date":"2026-06-03T14:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/drc-suggests-behind-closed-doors-world-cup-warm-up-to-offset-ebola-threat\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T14:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:36:40","slug":"drc-suggests-behind-closed-doors-world-cup-warm-up-to-offset-ebola-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/drc-suggests-behind-closed-doors-world-cup-warm-up-to-offset-ebola-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC suggests behind-closed-doors World Cup warm-up to offset Ebola threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/fifa-world-cup-2026\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"22.5\" width=\"222.75\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Post-Label-Image-Option-1-1780213226.png?fit=396%2C40&#038;quality=80\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"World Cup 2026 post label\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Mayor of Spain\u2019s La Linea de la Concepcion bans friendly between DR Congo and Chile due to health concerns.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are willing to play their pre-World Cup friendly with Chile behind closed doors, their head coach, Sebastien Desabre, says.<\/p>\n<p>The 49-year-old Frenchman made the offer after the mayor of the Spanish town due to host the match <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/2\/spain-bans-dr-congo-world-cup-warm-up-due-to-ebola-fears\">cancelled it<\/a> on Tuesday over health concerns regarding the Ebola outbreak in the African country.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/3\/morocco-world-cup-2026-preview-players-to-watch-group-and-squad-list\">World Cup contenders: Are Morocco ready to go all the way this time?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/3\/us-artist-sues-fifa-over-destruction-of-dallas-whale-mural-for-world-cup\">US artist sues FIFA over destruction of Dallas whale mural for World Cup<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/3\/casemiro-brazil-not-fifa-world-cup-2026-favourites-football\">\u2018We aren\u2019t the big favourites,\u2019 Brazil\u2019s Casemiro says<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/3\/messi-trains-alone-as-argentina-hold-first-world-cup-practice-session\">Messi trains alone as Argentina hold first World Cup practice<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cI have signed the decree banning the holding of the June 9 match between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chile,\u201d said Juan Franco, mayor of La Linea de la Concepcion, which is close to the border with Gibraltar in southern Spain.<\/p>\n<p>Franco said it was a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d and he was following recommendations by the Andalusia regional government\u2019s health service.<\/p>\n<p>Desabre, who also spoke on Tuesday on the eve of their friendly with Denmark in Liege, Belgium, said he had not given up hope of the match in Spain going ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are other stadiums. There\u2019s the option of playing behind closed doors. There are several possibilities. I can\u2019t really comment on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing I can say is that we\u2019re used to adapting, and whatever happens, we\u2019ll have no problem adapting to all these situations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The DRC, who have qualified for their first World Cup since they featured in the 1974 edition when they did so as Zaire, cancelled a planned pre-World Cup training camp at home after the country was hit by an Ebola outbreak last month and have been based in Belgium instead.<\/p>\n<p>Desabre said all the required precautionary measures have been taken.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, we are following the restrictions related to FIFA regarding medical organisation. The doctors are in contact with FIFA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, we\u2019re having a perfectly normal training camp like our other camps. All the players came from Europe. The local staff respected the deadlines for travelling, so it doesn\u2019t affect us at all day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever was declared in the eastern DRC in mid-May.<\/p>\n<p>US authorities said on May 22 that Congo\u2019s squad must isolate for 21 days before they would be allowed into the United States for the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19 and is being cohosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>During the tournament, they plan to be based in Houston, Texas, where they will play their first Group K match on June 17 against Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>The DRC are then scheduled to head to Guadalajara, Mexico, to play Colombia on June 24 before returning to the US to play Uzbekistan in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 28.<\/p>\n<p><em>The FIFA World Cup begins on June 11. You can follow the action on Al Jazeera\u2019s dedicated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/fifa-world-cup-2026\/\">World Cup 2026<\/a> page with all the latest news, match build-up and live text commentary, and keep up to date with group standings, real-time match results and schedules.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor of Spain\u2019s La Linea de la Concepcion bans friendly between DR Congo and Chile due to health concerns. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are willing to play their pre-World Cup friendly with Chile behind closed doors, their head coach, Sebastien Desabre, says. The 49-year-old Frenchman made the offer after the mayor of &#8230; <a title=\"DRC suggests behind-closed-doors World Cup warm-up to offset Ebola threat\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/drc-suggests-behind-closed-doors-world-cup-warm-up-to-offset-ebola-threat\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about DRC suggests behind-closed-doors World Cup warm-up to offset Ebola threat\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}