Nigeria coach Eric Chelle alleges DR Congo players practiced ‘voodoo’ during penalty shootout

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.

How do the inter-confederation play-offs work?

The play-offs will be held in March in North America, though exact dates and venues have yet to be confirmed.

DR Congo, New Caledonia (who lost the final of the OFC’s automatic qualifying tournament to New Zealand) and Bolivia (who finished seventh in CONMEBOL’s round robin qualifying format) have already qualified for the play-offs. In Asia, the United Arab Emirates will take on Iraq over two legs to qualify for the play-offs — the first leg finished 1-1 in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, ahead of the return in Basra on November 18.

As the host confederation, CONCACAF will be represented twice in the play-offs by the two best runners-up from the third round of qualifying. Curacao and Costa Rica are the teams currently occupying those positions.

After the six participants are confirmed, they will be split into seeded and unseeded teams and into two separate pathways. The two highest FIFA-ranked sides will be seeded and move straight on to the final of each pathway.

The unseeded teams will consist of a pair of single-leg semi-finals, with the two winners advancing to the final. The two final winners will be the 47th and 48th nations at the 2026 men’s World Cup.

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