Lionel Lucien was only 8 years old when Haiti played in its first World Cup match. It was 1974 and Haiti was playing Italy in a match Les Grenadiers would lose 3-1. But the moment that one goal hit was special.

“The city of Port-au-Prince at the time was like a cemetery,” Lucien, a prominent member of the Boston area Haitian community, said. “It was quiet, dead, nobody on the street. When Haiti scored that first goal, the whole country, the whole city, erupted, basically, in joy.”

It would be five decades before Haiti’s men’s national team would feel that kind of joy again. Haiti’s women’s team made it to the World Cup in 2023, but that '74 trip was the last time the men qualified. Until last month.

Support for GBH is provided by:
Become a GBH sponsor

That’s when Haiti beat Nicaragua 2-0 to win their CONCACAF group. And punched their ticket to soccer’s biggest stage.

“So, for us to be back in that same position to go the World Cup again is something that we cherish, words cannot express, basically, the joy it brought to every Haitian, every Haitian American,” Lucien said.

Later this week, Haiti will learn what group it will play in at next year’s World Cup. But no matter who Haiti plays or what happens in that tournament, just getting to this point is a sort of victory for the team and its fans.

A team disrupted

Support for GBH is provided by:
Become a GBH sponsor

Haiti has been dealing with a well-documented crisis characterized by violence and political instability for several years now.

That has had a huge impact on the Haitian national team. None of the team’s qualifying games could actually be played in Haiti — all of their “home” matches were in Curaçao.

And Haiti’s French head coach, Sebastien Migne, who joined the team last year, has never even stepped foot in Haiti given the situation there.

On top of all this, the Trump administration has listed Haiti as a country with a travel ban, meaning fans in Haiti trying to attend any World Cup matches in the U.S. will almost certainly not be welcomed.

“We hope that the Trump administration will reverse their decision. And we hope that the president of FIFA, which seems to have a good relationship with President Trump, will talk him out of that type of decision,” Lucien said. “It is not only unfair, this is pretty much inhumane.”

That puts Haiti in a similar situation as Iran, which has qualified for the World Cup but has also been hit with a travel ban. It is boycotting the upcoming draw over members of its reportedly being denied visas.

Fans undeterred

Despite the hurdles fans who are in Haiti will likely face trying to get into any matches scheduled in the U.S., Julio Midy isn’t too worried.

Midy is a host of Radio Concorde, a radio program catering to the local Haitian community. That’s a big deal in Massachusetts, which has one of the largest enclaves of Haitians in the country.

As he points out, Haiti isn’t the land, sea or the trees, it’s the people. And he plans to be at every match for Haiti in the group stage whether that’s in the U.S., Canada or Mexico. Something he expects other Haitians to do as well.

“Even the players ... when we see we have ten people in the stadium, we know we see ten people. But it’s not going to be ten. It’s going to be more than a million people singing ‘Haiti, Haiti, Haiti,'” he said. “It is sad, but don’t worry about it, as survivors we’ve done it before. We will manage.”

For his part, Haiti midfielder Derrick Etienne Jr. is expecting a big contingent of fans.

“For such a big occasion, I can see drones of people coming out. The Canadian-Haitians and American-Haitians will also show out in big numbers as this is something big for the country,” he told FIFA.

The match schedule for the World Cup is set to be released on Saturday. Lucien is hopeful that Gillette Stadium, which will be known as “Boston Stadium” during the cup, will get at least one of Haiti’s matches.

But he’s not worried, no matter where Haiti takes the pitch.

“Wherever Haiti is playing, we have no concern that there will be a huge amount of Haitian fans that will be going to support the team,” Lucien said. “That’s one opportunity that they won’t miss.”