'This is bigger than football' - DR Congo bid to end 52-year World Cup wait

Football fans in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been waiting a long time to right the wrongs of their solitary World Cup campaign in 1974.

That was the year US President Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal, the Rubik's Cube was invented and Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.

Victory for the Leopards in Tuesday's intercontinental play-off final against Jamaica will end that 52-year wait and guarantee Africa a 10th representative at this year's tournament in Canada, Mexico and the USA.

"I'd definitely consider it as the biggest game in my football career," Burnley defender Axel Tuanzebe told Sportsworld on BBC World Service, while former captain Gabriel Zakuani labelled it "the biggest game in our history".

Should DR Congo win, over 110 million people back home, as well as a huge global diaspora, will pray things go better this time than they did in West Germany, when their country competed as Zaire.

That campaign kicked off poorly with a 2-0 defeat against Scotland, careened off the tracks in a 9-0 humiliation against Yugoslavia and descended into farce during a 3-0 loss to Brazil which produced one of the World Cup's most memorable moments.

Not in a good way.

"What on Earth did he do that for?" was the question posed by BBC commentator John Motson when right-back Mwepu Ilunga charged out of the defensive wall and booted the ball downfield as Brazil lined up a free-kick on the edge of the Zaire penalty area.

Ilunga received a yellow card, but the damage done to African football's reputation was more severe, creating an impression that players from the continent did not even know the rules.

"We were not a bad team," Mohamed Kalambay, one of the goalkeepers in the 1974 squad, told BBC Sporting Witness in 2022.

"When you look at the teams in Africa, there are just a few that have been to the World Cup, but we were there and we deserved it."

Darker reasons have been suggested for Ilunga's moment of madness and the team's underperformance, ranging from unpaid bonuses to threats of violence.

Now a new generation hope to create their own iconic moments to banish those ghosts.

Victory against Jamaica will see them join a group containing Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia.

"The aim is to also compete and put on a good show," said Zakuani, an assistant coach with DR Congo's Under-20s, "not just be participants, not just be happy to be part of the party, but also to create history".

When they qualified in 1974, Zaire were only the third African side to reach the World Cup after Egypt (1934) and Morocco (1970).

Since then this huge, resource-rich nation – Africa's second largest by area and fourth by population – has been forced to watch enviously as smaller rivals such as Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia have made multiple appearances at global football's showpiece.

The explanation comes in the form of corruption, political instability and war – constants since the end of Belgium's extractive colonial rule in 1960.

The 1974 side, who were also reigning Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) champions, were backed by President Mobutu Sese Seko, the iron-fisted dictator who ran the country from 1971 to 1997, using his power to amass a huge personal fortune, some of which he invested into football.

"We were at the presidency. We went to see him because he wanted to encourage us," is how Kalambay remembered the man who gave each member of the Afcon-winning side a house and a car.

Congo have not been back to the Afcon final since.

"The impact over the last 50 years has been profound," said sports journalist Jean-Jacques Akengelaka, who points to facilities which have been "destroyed" and "corruption and poor governance within sport".

"Unlike other African countries, DR Congo has long lacked structured training centres, pitches, quality facilities and technical coaching."

Mobutu's reign was ended by conflict as the two Congo wars, which ran from 1996-2003, pulled in nine different African nations and claimed up to six million lives.

Fighting continues in the east of the country, where the M23 rebel group controls key cities including Goma and Bukavu, something which inspired DR Congo's squad to use their semi-final appearance at the 2023 Afcon to call for peace.

During the national anthem players covered their mouth with one hand while using the other to point like a gun at their temple.

Newcastle forward Yoane Wissa said at the time that he hoped the run to the last four had allowed those affected to "smile a bit", while Tuanzebe describes football as "giving a breath of fresh air to the country".

Freddy, a fan in Bukavu, told BBC Sport Africa that while not everyone views it that way, the majority "live out of football" and its power to "unite".

"It will really have much impact on my life and that of my neighbours," he said ahead of the clash with Jamaica, which is being played in Mexico.

But while Bukavu has plenty of social venues, the time difference, which means kick-off will be in the middle of the Congolese night, will see most fans watching at home.

"It is really very dangerous and deadly to move out in clubs, in bars to watch the match," Freddy explained.

"Whenever someone moves out late in the night, automatically he must be killed. Our area here in Bukavu is really dangerous due to the rebel occupation."

The Leopards reached Fifa's intercontinental play-offs after finishing second behind Senegal in their qualifying group.

They then had to negotiate a four-team African play-off, beating Cameroon before overcoming Nigeria on penalties in the final.

Recruiting players from the diaspora has been key to the team's success, both at Afcon and now in World Cup qualifying – a tactic deployed to good effect by other African nations including Cape Verde, who have already qualified for their maiden World Cup.

For example, both Tuanzebe and fellow defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka are former England youth internationals.

"I didn't have any doubts. As soon as I joined, they welcomed me, accepted me, I was happy and everything's been smooth ever since," West Ham's Wan-Bissaka told BBC Sport Africa at the recent Afcon in Morocco, where DR Congo exited in the last 16.

"It's where my parents are from. I grew up in a Congolese household, and I was just proud to represent them."

Of the current 26-man squad, 10 were born in head coach Sebastien Desabre's home nation France, five in Belgium, two in Switzerland and one in England.

Eight were born in Congo, yet many spent their childhood in Europe.

Only two, midfielder Meschak Elia and forward Fiston Mayele, have played senior football for a Congolese club side.

"Many talented players have to go abroad at a very early age," explainedAkengelaka.

"There is unstable organisation, insufficient funding and little media coverage of competitions at national level."

It seems unlikely the league system will produce international-quality players any time soon.

The 2022-23 Linafoot season went unfinished after the government withdrew subsidies to help clubs pay air fares - the only way to get around this vast country - while individual teams have recently failed to find the funds to finish their campaigns.

The national federation, Fecofa, has been unable to improve things, having been without an elected leader since former president Constant Omari was suspended from all football-related activity for a year in June 2021.

A Fifa-appointed normalisation committee, external has run Fecofa since April 2023, with planned elections recently postponed again.

The government, meanwhile, has pumped millions into sponsorship deals with Barcelona, AC Milan and Monaco, angering those who say the money should be funding Congolese football.

The BBC has also heard from civil servants, whose salaries have gone unpaid, who are unhappy with the money spent supporting the Leopards' bid for World Cup glory.

"We're very privileged to have everything that we need. We're not longing for anything andit enables us to go and perform the best we can," admitted Tuanzebe, who hopes the team can now hold up their end of the bargain.

"This is one of those moments where this is bigger than just football, this is leaving a legacy behind, a moment in our history that we'll always remember and always cherish."