DRC willing to play Chile friendly behind closed doors

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 the Spanish town due to host the match cancelled it on Tuesday over health concerns regarding the Ebola outbreak in the African country.

“I have signed the decree banning the holding of the June 9 match between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chile,” said Juan Franco, mayor of La Linea de la Concepcion, which is close to the border with Gibraltar in southern Spain.

Franco said it was a “precautionary measure” and he was following recommendations by the Andalusia regional government’s health service.

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.

“There are other stadiums. There’s the option of playing behind closed doors. There are several possibilities. I can’t really comment on that,” he said.

“The only thing I can say is that we’re used to adapting, and whatever happens, we’ll have no problem adapting to all these situations.”

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.

Desabre said all the required precautionary measures have been taken.

“Of course, we are following the restrictions related to FIFA regarding medical organisation. The doctors are in contact with FIFA,” he said.

“Honestly, we’re 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’t affect us at all day to day.”

The outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever was declared in the eastern DRC in mid-May.

US authorities said on May 22 that Congo’s 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.

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.

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.