Trump’s World Cup chief orders Congo soccer workforce to isolate over Ebola outbreak
Donald Trump’s chief of the FIFA World Cup taskforce, Andrew Giuliani, has told FIFA that the DR Congo national football team must isolate before the major tournament over the Ebola outbreak
Andrew Giuliani has informed FIFA over the decision (Image: AP)
A men’s national football team has been ordered to isolate before the World Cup by the head of the Donald Trump’s taskforce due to the Ebola outbreak.
Andrew Giuliani, who is the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was assigned to head the FIFIA World Cup taskforce.
Speaking to ESPN, Giuliani claimed he has informed FIFA that the US has made a decision and that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) team must isolate in Belgium before the tournament begins.
He told the publication: “We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government as well that they need to maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to travel to the United States We cannot be any clearer.”
Congo is scheduled to face Portugal on June 17 in Houston before heading to play Colombia on June 23 in Guadalajara, Mexico. There last group game will be against Uzbekistan on June 27 in Atlanta.
Despite the US decision over fears of the Ebola virus spreading, none of the Congo players or manager are based in the country. The majority are currently playing their football in France.
The decision comes as the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was revising upwards to “very high” its assessment of the risk within DR Congo, which had previously been deemed as high.
The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.
The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, “but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger”.
Supplies were being rushed to the province of Ituri in the north-eastern corner of the country, where the illness has been spreading for weeks in areas where many people have been displaced by armed conflict.
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