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World Cup fever hits the Caribbean. Go Cu-ra-cao go! Go Haiti go! Against all odds. Be-yond pos-si-ble. Em-brace and en-joy the op-por-tu-ni-ty. The Caribbean As-so-ci-a-tion of Na-tion-al Olympic Com-mit-tees (CANOC) stands in sol-i-dar-i-ty with Cu-ra-cao and Haiti.
Yes, they are both cer-tain-ly the “Davids” among glob-al foot-ball “Go-liaths.” And yes, there may be no fairy-tale end-ing for ei-ther at the 2026 FI-FA World Cup, which gets un-der-way on Thurs-day. But both coun-tries rep-re-sent more than foot-ball–more than just a game. Both na-tions car-ry in-to this year’s glob-al foot-ball flag-ship event back-sto-ries that are in-spi-ra-tional es-says on the tri-umph of the hu-man spir-it and en-deav-our in the face of tri-als and tribu-la-tions.
Their achieve-ment is one that, re-gard-less of which CANOC na-tion one may come from, a source of col-lec-tive Caribbean pride. Just get-ting to the “Big Show” is a World Cup win in it-self. While it is a fact that al-most every sin-gle Caribbean cit-i-zen will al-so car-ry sup-port for one of the Go-liaths, that ought not to di-min-ish our Caribbean pride and sup-port. For sure, we all want Cu-ra-cao and Haiti to give a good show-ing.
In the case of Haiti, it’s al-so about pre-sent-ing an im-age of the coun-try that ex-tends be-yond the in-ter-na-tion-al me-dia nar-ra-tive of armed gangs, po-lit-i-cal in-sta-bil-i-ty, pover-ty, and vi-o-lence against women and chil-dren.
I read a state-ment yes-ter-day from the Hait-ian gov-ern-ment which, in part, said: “This qual-i-fi-ca-tion is much more than a sport-ing achieve-ment. It rep-re-sents a pow-er-ful sym-bol of hope, per-se-ver-ance, and con-fi-dence in the fu-ture of the Hait-ian Na-tion.”
While the In-ter-na-tion-al Olympic Com-mit-tee (IOC) and FI-FA still pur-port that sport is apo-lit-i-cal, the truth is that it isn’t–sport mat-ters. Sport sends a mes-sage. Haiti need-ed this qual-i-fi-ca-tion for rea-sons be-yond the foot-ball field.
Haiti is drawn in Group C and will par-tic-i-pate in the World Cup for the sec-ond time. Mean-while, debu-tant Cu-ra-cao–the small-est na-tion to ever qual-i-fy for the World Cup–will com-pete in Group E in the 48-team tour-na-ment which will be the longest ever, span-ning 39 days and 104 match-es.
In-ci-den-tal-ly, the CANOC Gen-er-al As-sem-bly this year will be held in Cu-ra-cao in Oc-to-ber.
The Cu-ra-cao Foot-ball Fed-er-a-tion is of-fi-cial-ly known as the Fed-erashon Fut-bòl Kòr-sou (FFK).
Cu-ra-cao’s qual-i-fi-ca-tion has been a long-held dream and ob-jec-tive for the for-mer pres-i-dent of the fed-er-a-tion, Rig-naal “Jean” Fran-cis-ca, who led the or-gan-i-sa-tion for 19 years. Un-der his lead-er-ship, the fed-er-a-tion heav-i-ly em-pha-sised youth pro-grammes, lay-ing the ground-work that ul-ti-mate-ly cul-mi-nat-ed in Cu-ra-cao reach-ing its first-ever FI-FA World Cup.
In De-cem-ber 2021, the fed-er-a-tion ho-n-oured his near-ly two-decade tenure by re-nam-ing the FFK Sta-di-um in Brie-ven-gat, Willem-stad, to the Sta-dion Rig-naal ‘Jean’ Fran-cis-ca. Cur-rent FFK pres-i-dent Gilbert Mar-ti-na, in a May 2026 news-pa-per ar-ti-cle, was quot-ed as say-ing: “This project be-gan 25 years ago with our first fed-er-a-tion pres-i-dent, Mr. Fran-cis-ca.”
In the case of Haiti, it’s a re-mark-able sto-ry of how qual-i-fi-ca-tion was achieved amidst an on-go-ing hu-man-i-tar-i-an cri-sis. Haiti couldn’t play any of its match-es at home. In fact, head coach Sébastien Migné has nev-er even set foot in-side the coun-try.
Many of the na-tion-al team play-ers were born, raised, and re-side abroad. Wood-en-sky Pierre is one of the few play-ers who grew up in Haiti, still lives there, and plays in the coun-try’s do-mes-tic foot-ball league.
Cred-it must go to Marie Monique An-dré, pres-i-dent of the FI-FA-ap-point-ed nor-mal-i-sa-tion com-mit-tee for Hait-ian foot-ball since 2020. Her task sure-ly isn’t an easy one.
The eyes of the world will be on Cu-ra-cao and Haiti, and by ex-ten-sion, the Caribbean.
Go Cu-ra-cao go! Go Haiti go! Rep-re-sent with pride and pas-sion!
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