Nigeria coach Eric Chelle alleges DR Congo players practiced ‘voodoo’ during penalty shootout – The Athletic
Nigeria’s head coach Eric Chelle has alleged that DR Congo’s players were practicing “voodoo” during their penalty shootout victory over his side on Sunday.
DR Congo won 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) World Cup play-off final, meaning they advanced through to March’s six-team inter-confederation play-offs and eliminating Nigeria from the qualification process.
Nigeria opened the scoring after three minutes through Frank Onyeka’s deflected strike but Meschak Elia equalised for DR Congo to force extra-time. DR Congo won the penalty shootout to advance through to the final stage of the play-off system.
When Chancel Mbemba scored the winning penalty, Chelle confronted several members of DR Congo’s staff including the head coach Sebastien Desabre. He had to be separated from them by members of Nigeria’s backroom team.
Desabre appeared first for his post-match press conference and said that the altercation was “not an issue”.
At the end of his press conference, Chelle asked reporters why they had not brought up the incident. Chelle, speaking French, then presented his version of events: “DR Congo guys were doing maraboutage” (technically a Muslim holy man, marabout has connotations of a north African witch doctor).
Chelle, 48, later doubled down on his allegations in English when walking through the media mixed zone: “During all of the penalties, the players of Congo were doing some voodoo.”
A representative of DR Congo denied Chelle’s claims when asked by The Athletic.
DR Congo edged out Nigeria 4-3 on penalties (Jay Harris/The Athletic)
On Monday, Chelle took to social media to apologise for his claims. A statement posted by the Ivorian coach read: “Football is all about emotions. After the match, I reacted in the heat of the moment because of an altercation with a member of the DR Congo staff who was trying to come into my technical area.
“I never meant to target the Congolese people or their staff, whom I respect. I am disappointed that we have been eliminated, but proud of my players. Congratulations to Congo, who were the better team.
“Their fans showed great enthusiasm, as did ours. We will move forward together. I would also like to point out that any Twitter account in my name is fake.”
How do the inter-confederation play-offs work?
The inter-confederation play-offs will be held in North America during the March international break, though exact dates and venues have yet to be confirmed.
DR Congo, New Caledonia (who lost the final of Oceania’s automatic qualifying tournament to New Zealand) and Bolivia (who finished seventh in South America’s round-robin qualifying format) have already secured half of the six play-off places.
The United Arab Emirates are playing Iraq over two legs to decide the Asian federation’s representatives in them — the first match finished 1-1 in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the return is in Basra on Tuesday, November 18. As this World Cup’s host confederation, Concacaf will be represented twice in these play-offs, by the two best runners-up from its three-group third round of qualifying. Jamaica and Panama are the teams currently occupying those positions, with the final set of games also being played Tuesday (early Wednesday UK time).
After the six participants are confirmed, they will be split into seeded and unseeded teams and drawn into two separate pathways this Thursday.
The two sides placed highest in the FIFA rankings will be seeded and go straight to the final of each pathway. The four unseeded teams will contest a pair of single-leg semi-finals, with the winners advancing to the two finals. The victors in those matches will be the 47th and 48th nations to qualify for the 48-team 2026 men’s World Cup.
