On a street in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, a dozen teenagers using stones for goalposts were immersed in a Sunday game of soccer as traffic wound around them.
Haiti has many problems, including political instability, poverty and crime, but through it all, the heart of the nation beats for soccer.
Haiti’s qualification for this summer’s FIFA World Cup has come like a breath of fresh air for the poorest nation in the Americas, whose nearly 12 million people have long grappled with gang violence that has caused a humanitarian crisis.
Photo: AFP
“Football is hope and love. It inspires pride and passion,” said Salome Sandler Tally, founder and coach of the women’s section of Aigle Noir AC, a professional club based in the capital, Port-au-Prince. “Qualifying for the World Cup is something special for a country that loves football so deeply.”
The Grenadiers, as Haiti’s team is known, made their only previous appearance in West Germany in 1974.
“It is incredible to have achieved this 52 years later,” Tally said.
Photo: AFP
Early this month, the cash-strapped government allocated 264 million gourdes (US$2.01 million) for the national soccer team as a qualification bonus and to help pay for World Cup preparations.
Haiti are to face Brazil, Morocco and Scotland in Group C. Their games would be played in the US, which is cohosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19.
In their World Cup qualifying campaign, Haiti did not play a single match on home soil.
Photo: AFP
The nation’s main venue — the Sylvio Cator Stadium — has been closed since February 2024, as it is located in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood controlled by gangs, as is about 90 percent of the capital.
However, the “beautiful game” is played everywhere by people who are barefoot, in flip-flops or in sneakers. They have matches on asphalt, dirt or worn-out artificial turf — in neighborhood leagues, interschool competitions, and tournaments involving both professional and amateur clubs.
Patrice Dumont, a former senator and sports columnist, said that in Haiti, a deeply religious nation, summer holiday leagues “are sites of pagan ceremonies that would make even the most devout fanatics blanche” — an apparent reference to the charged atmosphere at the matches.
“You see them in every community — provided there is space — ranging from three-a-side matches to full 11-a-side games, always drawing massive crowds of spectators,” he said.
Evens Lezin, a 49-year-old amateur player, said that qualification for the World Cup would give “hope” to Haiti’s youth.
“We can move forward, but it requires discipline,” he said. “Nowadays, many young people are delinquent. They struggle with alcohol, they smoke and they lack healthy recreational pursuits, but football can offer an escape.”
The topic of soccer finds its way into every conversation. It bridges generational and social divides, and is talked about in restaurants, supermarkets, in living rooms and over the airwaves.
“Football is probably one of the few spaces for socialization still accessible to a large segment of the youth. It is the quintessential conversation starter,” soccer fan Marc Donald Orphee, 35, said.
Even though the majority of the players on the men’s and women’s national teams play abroad, that has not diminished the public devotion to the home side.
Pierreline Nazon, 18, a star of the women’s under-20 team, compares herself to Melchie Dumornay, a Haitian midfielder for OL Lyonnes, a top French team.
“My dream has always been to play football — to be like Melchie, and even to surpass her,” she said, during a break from training in the hills above Petion-Ville, a suburb of the capital spared from violence.
“I know I will achieve this. That is why I keep training, seizing every opportunity to play, even though the situation in Haiti is difficult,” she said.
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