{"id":300945,"date":"2026-05-20T06:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/300945\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:02:09","slug":"ebola-outbreak-casts-shadow-over-world-cup-team-headed-to-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/300945\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola outbreak casts shadow over World Cup team headed to Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Cup will kick off in less than a month, but for one team, their path to arriving in America just got a bit more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday, two federal agencies in the United States implemented enhanced travel screening, entry restrictions and public health measures to prevent Ebola disease from entering the country amid ongoing outbreaks in East and Central Africa.<\/p>\n

One of the countries affected is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which will set up shop in South Houston’s SaberCats Stadium<\/a>, the former home of Houston’s Major League Rugby team. However, the Ebola outbreak in DRC has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to impose travel restrictions on non-U.S. passport holders who have visited the country within the past 21 days.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this situation has been declared “a public health emergency of international concern, but does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency,” as stated on the agency’s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chron reached out to representatives of FECOFA, the Congolese Association Football Federation, but had not received a response as of Tuesday. However,\u00a0according to Michael Adkison of Houston Public Media<\/a>, officials from Houston’s World Cup host committee stated that the team is expected to be in Houston by June 11.<\/p>\n

The DRC is scheduled to play its first match of the tournament on June 17 at Reliant Stadium against Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, one of the favorites to win the World Cup. The Leopards will feature four players from the English Premier League on their roster, including\u00a0Yoane Wissa (Newcastle United), Aaron\u00a0Wan-Bissaka (West Ham United), Axel Tuanzabe (Burnley) and Noah\u00a0Sadiki (Sunderland).<\/p>\n

Per\u00a0Adkinson, the CDC travel restriction is in effect for 30 days, which would include travel through\u00a0June 17.<\/p>\n

“The FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee is being briefed by FIFA, public health experts, and relevant medical agencies regarding recent virus outbreaks,” said a spokesperson from the FIFA host city committee\u00a0in a statement. “The Host Committee will follow the guidance and recommendations of health authorities as preparations for the tournament move forward.”<\/p>\n

So far, one American has tested positive for Ebola, according to the\u00a0CDC. Six other Americans, who are close contacts of the infected person, also in the DRC, are being monitored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 World Cup will kick off in less than a month, but for one team, their path…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[90040,16469,87172,1704,89282,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-300945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronhealth","tag-chronsports","tag-chronsportsbiz","tag-chronstaff","tag-chronworldcup","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}