Haiti’s men’s football team have to play their home matches overseas as gun-toting gangs control the capital, the squad is made up almost entirely of players from the diaspora and the coach has never visited the country.
Yet on June 13, a nation plagued by violence and insecurity will find a moment of unity, as Haiti’s men play their first Fifa World Cup match for more than five decades.
“It gives Haiti a positive story at a time when the country is often only associated internationally with crisis and instability,” Monique André, president of the Haitian Football Federation, said of their first appearance at the World Cup since 1974, secured with a victory over Nicaragua late last year that sparked wild celebrations across the Caribbean country.