🇭🇹 Haiti at the 2026 World Cup

Haiti compete in Group C of the FIFA World Cup 2026, playing matches in Boston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. This is Haiti’s first World Cup since 1974, a 52-year gap that ends in the summer with a group containing Brazil, Morocco, and Scotland, three opponents with significantly more recent tournament experience.

The 1974 appearance in West Germany is the one Haitian football has measured itself against ever since. The Grenadiers drew their first match, then lost to Italy and Argentina, but that result against Italy, a 3-1 defeat where Haiti led at halftime through Emmanuel Sanon’s goal, announced Caribbean football to a global audience that had not seen it before. Sanon became the first player from CONCACAF to score against Italy in World Cup history. Haiti went home after the group stage, but the image of Sanon running in front of a West German crowd in 1974 remains in the memory of a football culture that has spent five decades trying to get back.

The return journey went through the CONCACAF Nations League qualification system and Caribbean qualifying that Haiti navigated without the infrastructure of Mexico, the United States, or Canada. Haitian football operates with limited domestic league resources and relies heavily on the diaspora, particularly the substantial Haitian-American community in Miami, New York, and Boston. A significant proportion of the 2026 squad was born or developed in the United States and plays in MLS or European lower leagues. Frantzdy Pierrot, who plays in Belgium, and Derrick Etienne Jr, who has gone through MLS, are representative of a squad built across borders in the way that only diaspora football nations can be.

Group C presents no easy path. Brazil are among the tournament favourites. Morocco reached the semi-final in 2022. Scotland qualified and will arrive with their own story of long absences finally ending. For Haiti, every point earned will be a statement about what 52 years of work can produce.

Group C Match Schedule

• June 13: vs Scotland, Gillette Stadium Boston. 21:00 ET (20:00, Port-au-Prince)
• June 19: vs Brazil, Lincoln Financial Field Philadelphia. 21:00 ET (20:00, Port-au-Prince)
• June 24: vs Morocco, Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta. 18:00 ET (17:00, Port-au-Prince)

Viewing from Haiti

Haiti observes Eastern Standard Time year-round without daylight saving time, which means Port-au-Prince runs one hour behind New York in June. The Boston and Philadelphia kickoffs both land at 20:00 local time, a prime evening slot. The Atlanta finale arrives at 17:00, a late afternoon match.

The more significant viewing context is the diaspora. Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, the Haitian communities in Brooklyn and the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, and the concentrations in Boston and Cambridge will watch these matches in person for many for the first time. Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, is 20 kilometres from the largest Haitian-American population centre in New England. The Scotland match is as close to a home game as Haiti will ever play at a World Cup.

Check Port-au-Prince time for live conversions throughout the tournament.