Haiti has qualified for the 2026 World Cup. The national coach has never set foot in the troubled country; US President Trump is banning Haitians from entering the country.
It was November 18, 2025, 9 p.m. local time, when an extremely important football match began at the Ergilio Hato Stadium in Willemstad. But only a tiny fraction of the population of Curaçao, whose capital is Willemstad, may have taken notice.
However, it is certain that most residents of Curaçao and those who have their roots there have their eyes set on Kingston. This is the capital of Jamaica, and an extremely important football match began there at the same time. For Curaçao it was even the most important in history. It ended 0-0, meaning Curaçao qualified for a World Cup for the first time.
At a World Cup again after 1974
In Willemstad, the game against Nicaragua ended 2-0 for Haiti, which also qualified for the World Cup, for the second time in history, as the Caribbean country was also represented in Germany in 1974.
Haiti has around twelve million inhabitants, Curaçao 156,000, fewer than ever before for a World Cup participant.
Distraction through football: fans in Port-au-Prince
That’s why Curaçao belongs in the headlines. It’s the beautiful story, the extraordinary one, the one with the superlative, even if there are plausible reasons why the qualification isn’t all that extraordinary.
Special and cruel story
Haiti is not a pretty story, even if the people celebrated their team, cheered and are proud. Football is just a distraction from the huge problems facing the country the special and cruel history has.
More than 300,000 dead in earthquakes
One of the worst moments in recent history was on January 12, 2010. A devastating earthquake with the epicenter near the capital Port au Prince cost more than 300,000 people their lives. Economically devastated, politically unstable and repeatedly battered by natural disasters, Haiti is now considered the poorest country on the American continent.
Hundreds of thousands leave the country
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are leaving their country, which was once a popular holiday destination for Western tourists.
Armed gangs have been engaged in bitter fighting for years and are dividing the country between themselves.
In March 2024, football was directly affected. The Sylvio Cator Stadium was “attacked and occupied” by gangs, as the association announcedemployees had been kidnapped.
Poverty, flight, violence, natural disasters: Haiti, a stricken country
Exile on Curaçao
Since then, the national team has been avoiding it. The home games of the now successfully completed qualification were played in Curaçao.
National coach never been to Haiti
This creates the situation that the national coach of Haiti has never been to Haiti. “It’s simply impossible because it’s too dangerous,” said Sébastien Migné to a reporter who, among other things, worked at the BBC reported.
National coach Migné: “It’s simply impossible because it’s too dangerous.”
“I normally live in the country I work for. But it doesn’t work here. The airport is also closed to international flights,” said the 52-year-old Frenchman, who was assistant to national coach Rigobert Song in Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup and took up his new job in 2024.
Entry ban and hatred from Trump
He will now be responsible for Haiti at the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada. The Caribbean country is the second qualified country after Iran travel ban is affected, which US President Donald Trump issued in the summer of 2025.
People from Haiti are not allowed to enter the USA. Players, coaches and supervisors are exempt from the entry ban. As things stand, fans, if they can afford it, probably won’t have a chance to come from Haiti to the USA.
Haitians experienced the autocrat’s hatred as early as 2024, when Trump claimed that immigrants from Haiti were eating dogs and cats that Americans kept as pets.
Joy at Infantino, not a word about the travel ban
Trump’s friend Gianni Infantino made a good attitude towards the malicious game. In his congratulatory message, the president of the world association FIFA said that Haiti has always been a country that loves football. He is looking forward to seeing Haiti at the 2026 tournament.