THE SPECTRE OF EBOLA: Report: Giuliani says Congo must isolate for 21 days, stay in a bubble before World Cup

Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, has given the Congo men’s national team explicit instructions or face not participating in the tournament.

The Congo side must isolate for 21 days or risk entering the United States for the World Cup as the African country deals with an outbreak of Ebola, ESPN reported on Friday.

Giuliani told ESPN that the U.S. has notified FIFA, the Congo team and its government that the national side remain in a bubble in Belgium. The Congo squad is training there and is set to perform in a pair of warm-up games.

“We’ve been very clear to Congo that they should maintain the integrity of their bubble for 21 days before they can then come to Houston on June 11th,” Giuliani was quoted by ESPN. “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.”

The African country last week confirmed an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo. That outbreak is thought to have killed more than 130 people and caused nearly 600 suspected cases.

The entire national squad and head coach Sebastien Desabre are based outside of the country. Most of the players perform in France. Several of the team staff that is based in Congo left the nation this week.

“If there are other people that are going to be coming in, they need to have a separate bubble from that team. If they end up coming, and any of those people end up symptomatic, they are risking the entire team being able to come and compete in this World Cup,” Giuliani told ESPN.

Congo is set to play warmup games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9.

Playing in Group K, the team will face Portugal in its opener in Houston on June 17, Colombia in Guadalajara, Mexico, on June 23 and then Uzbekistan in Atlanta on June 27.