In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko invested heavily in the national football team.
After qualifying for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in December 1973, the players were each given a car and a house by Mobutu.
The disastrous displays of the Zaire national team were put into a new light in a notable 2002 interview with defender Mwepu Ilunga.
Even though they were persuaded to show up against Yugoslavia, they were unmotivated and lost 0-9, one of the highest defeats in FIFA World Cup history.
They closed the hotel to all journalists and said that if we lost 0-4 to Brazil, none of us would be able to return home", Ilunga is quoted.
"We were aware that every team received a big qualification bonus [From FIFA, and partially passed on to the players] of half a million dollars.
We shared the same hotel with the players of Haiti and every day we saw them arrive back with bags full of presents: jewellery, radios, clothes.
"[4] Late in their third match, a free kick was given to Zairian opponents Brazil at a central position just outside the penalty box.
At the time, some thought of it as "a bizarre moment of African innocence" as quoted by BBC reporter John Motson.
Only decades later did Ilunga explain that he was fully aware of the rules and had hoped to be sent off in an act of protest, but referee Nicolae Rainea only showed him a yellow card.
The Yugoslav coach Vidinić did not return to Zaire after the championships but went straight back to his home country.
The players, rather than being received by luxurious coach as had been the case after their Africa Cup triumph, had an empty army truck waiting for them.
This scuppered the players prospects of moves to European clubs with the offers that came in after the World cup.
After the World cup Mobutu lost interest in football and stopped actively using the Zaire national team as a political tool for promoting his regime.
In 2012 a charity raised money for the surviving players to receive a small pension every month of a couple of hundred dollars.