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.