Haiti

Haiti's national football team, Les Grenadiers, qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in a historic moment for The Nation: their first appearance at the tournament since France 1974, ending a 52-year absence. Haiti's sole prior World Cup remains a landmark in Caribbean football. At the 1974 tournament in West Germany, Haiti made their debut, most memorably through Emmanuel Sanon, whose goal against Italy ended Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff's record 1,143-minute international shutout. The 2026 squad was largely built through the Haitian diaspora, with players eligible through Haitian heritage drawn from clubs across North America and Europe. At the 2026 tournament, Haiti were drawn into Group c alongside Brazil, Morocco, and Scotland. They scored their first World Cup goals in 52 years in a dramatic match against Morocco: Lenny Joseph and Wilson Isidor both found the net, but Morocco came back to win 4-2. Haiti were subsequently eliminated from the group stage. The squad's presence at a tournament hosted in the United States carried particular resonance given that Haiti is one of four countries, alongside Libya, Somalia and Yemen, whose nationals are barred from entering the US under the Trump administration's travel ban, meaning no Haitian supporters could legally attend their team's group-stage matches. Haiti itself is a Caribbean republic occupying the western third of Hispaniola, with a population of approximately 12 million. It is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, still recovering from the 2010 earthquake that killed over 200,000 people, the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, and the subsequent collapse of state authority as armed gangs seized control of large parts of Port-au-Prince. Over 700,000 people were internally displaced as of early 2026. The World Cup qualification, achieved despite that backdrop, became a rare emblem of national pride.