Concacaf approves exceptional hosting arrangement
Haiti to face US at Nu Stadium on 14 November
Miami’s Haitian community offers home advantage
Concacaf on Thursday announced it has approved Haiti’s request to relocate their Nations League quarter-final first leg against the United States on 14 November from Kingston, Jamaica, to Miami in an “exceptional hosting arrangement”. Haiti have been unable to play nominal “home” games within their borders since July 2021, with the United Nations estimating that 90% of the capital of Port-au-Prince – including the national stadium – is controlled by violent gangs.
Haiti’s match, the first leg of a home-and-away series against the US, had been booked for Kingston. The Grenadiers played their 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Curaçao, Aruba and Barbados. However, the Nations League format slated Curaçao and Jamaica to host their matches on the same night as Haiti’s, shunting Haiti to Sabina Park, the home of the Jamaica national team until their current venue opened in 1962. Now a cricket ground, Sabina Park hosted two of Haiti’s Nations League qualifiers.
While the shuffle sends Haiti within their opponents’ borders, they couldn’t have found a more hospitable home away from home. Miami boasts by far the largest population of Haitians and their descendants in the US, with nearly half a million concentrated predominantly in south Florida. They will play at Nu Stadium, where they played the venue’s first international friendly – a pre-World Cup clash with Peru – in June before a sold-out crowd of 26,700. That support dwarfed the crowds they drew at Sabina Park, where their two matches attracted an average of 297 fans.
The US have won four of their six clashes with Haiti this century, with the other two matches ending in draws.
This will be Haiti’s first trip back to the US since this summer’s World Cup, a hero-making turn for the Caribbean nation in their first tournament appearance since 1974. The Grenadiers were handed a difficult group, losing all three games against Morocco, Scotland and Brazil. Nonetheless, they enjoyed fantastic support from fans at their matches in Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
The second leg of the quarter-final is set to take place on 17 November at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati.
Concacaf added that “this flexibility will remain in place for as long as the security situation in Haiti persists”. Haiti, as well as clubs based in the country, will need to seek approval from Concacaf for each match they look to play in “the territory of its opponents”, a separate arrangement from the neutral sites they have previously booked. The confederation stipulated that the measure “may be amended or withdrawn by the Concacaf Council at any time”.
