The World Cup qualifying match between Congo and Ivory Coast on Sunday has been cancelled, confirming Congo's withdrawal from the competition because of financial problems, the Ivorian football federation announced today.
According to some reports, FIFA have confirmed this weekend that Congo would play no further part in the competition despite a last-minute attempt by Congo football association president Sylvestre Mbongo to reverse the decision to withdraw.
According to FIFA’s official website, however, Mbongo is still attempting to retract this withdrawal after learning that his country could lose out in financial terms.
According to World Cup regulations, any federation withdrawing without good cause forfeits all remaining payouts from the $1 million sum distributed by FIFA to each country from the 1998 World Cup revenues. Congo would stand to lose the last two of their four annual payouts - amounting to $500,000.
Mbongo was reported to have appealed in vain after realising that countries who withdraw from the World Cup are barred from receiving an annual $250,000-dollar grant from the world football governing body.
Nonetheless, FIFA's website indicates that Mbongo has now requested that FIFA ignore his federation's previous message, claiming that it had been sent in error. FIFA has not yet informed the Ivorian FA that the February 25 fixture has been cancelled, which means that Mbongo's request may well have arrived just in time.
Congo were bottom of Group D, after losing 2-0 in Democratic Republic of Congo and 2-1 at home to Tunisia.