Why Haiti hosting the US in Miami feels like a homecoming

A day before Haiti hosts the U.S. men’s national team in a Concacaf Nations League match in Miami, Haitian fans are already celebrating Les Grenadiers hosting its “home” game on their opponent’s soil. The match at Miami’s Nu Stadium , a venue with tickets costing upwards of $158, is already nearly sold out as the Haitian community gets ready to cheer on the team.

On Friday evening, hundreds plan to gather at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex for a kickoff soirée featuring konpa group T-Vice and a rara band. Saturday morning, Haitian soccer legends promise to take the field at Oak Grove Park in North Miami, as a way to connect generations of Haitian soccer fans, celebrate the athletes and build excitement.

“Together, the events aim to create a home-like environment for Les Grenadiers, where music, food, national colors and soccer bring Haiti’s presence into a stadium outside its borders,” said Ernst “Zenno” Jean-Baptiste , a former national team player and coach, during a livestream promoting the events.

“We want them to feel that they are not arriving in an unfamiliar place,” he said, referring to the players.

For local residents, community leaders and scholars, Saturday’s matchup brings together two Haitian migration stories.

One is that of Haitians who have built communities across the U.S. while waiting for conditions in Haiti to improve. The other involves members of the Haitian diaspora, who represent their ancestral homeland and a “reverse-flow migration” as one scholar describes it.

The phenomenon has led to Haiti playing home games outside the country because incessant gang-fueled violence has locked them out.

“It’s good news that Haiti is allowed to host its game in the Haitian-heavy Miami area,” said Judite Blanc , a psychologist and associate professor at the University of Miami who is Haitian American.

“But still, hosting your match in the opposing team’s territory creates an upside-down scenario.”

Jean Berthol Bazile, a North Miami entrepreneur with Jean-Baptiste on the livestream, saw the unusual “home” game designation as a fitting arrangement for Haiti.

“This is the capital of the Haitian diaspora,” said Bazile, who is reselling match tickets.

He added, “This is (poetic) justice for us, after being snubbed by FIFA not scheduling any of Haiti’s World Cup matches in Miami.”

Haiti has not played a senior men’s national team match on its own soil since June 2021, when it hosted Canada in a World Cup qualifying match at Stade Sylvio Cator . The following month, Haiti’s president was assassinated , leaving a governance vacuum that criminal organizations have exploited.

As gang violence escalated across Port-au-Prince, the stadium, located in the heart of the capital, became too dangerous to access. In March 2024, armed groups took control of the facility as a base of operations.

This week, on Nov. 11, newly deployed Salvadoran troops drove armed gangs from the stadium. The troops are now using the stadium as a military base.

Over the past five years, Haiti has played “home” games in Curaçao and Jamaica, whose facilities comply with FIFA and Concacaf’s stadium guidelines for international matches. This fall, weeks after a post-game melee in the Dominican Republic, Concacaf allowed Haiti to play home matches in its opponents’ territory.

The temporary movements reflect a feeling many Haitian immigrants waiting to go back home find familiar.

Edline Mompremier, another Miami resident, sums up the team’s predicament.

“Haiti may be nomadic, but it is not homeless,” said Mompremier, who plans to attend the match with her 9-year-old daughter.

In that sense, the team’s experience mirrors that of Haitians in South Florida, home to one of the largest Haitian communities outside of Haiti.

According to a September 2026 report by the Migration Policy Institute ( MPI ), nearly 859,000 Haitian immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2024. Florida accounted for 48% of that population, while the Miami metropolitan area accounted for approximately 31% of Haitian immigrants nationwide.

From Homestead to Miami, Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, Haitians living in cities across the state are brimming with excitement. Grenadiers fever is also drawing Haitians far beyond South Florida, including many families who could not afford tickets to World Cup matches or to travel abroad.

For them, seeing the national team in person creates a connection that television broadcasts, streaming and long-distance travel cannot replicate. Although Haiti played a World Cup friendly in Miami earlier this year against Peru, this game holds more significance because Haiti is the host in a competitive match.

The timing also coincides with the Battle of Vertières, the Haitian Revolution combat associated with the team’s namesake, on Nov. 18. The Haitian Football Federation and some event organizers have pushed the connection over social media in promoting the month’s games.

“Everyone will wear their Haitian team jersey, bring flags, tchatchas and more to make noise,” said Onèl Marius, who is traveling from Orlando with family to attend the game.

“We want the players to feel a homecoming atmosphere the minute they enter the stadium.”

In the 1990s, the Haitian government launched a campaign called “Retounen Lakay” — Haitian Creole for “Return Home”— to encourage Haitians who had fled Duvalier’s dictatorship to return to Haiti. Decades later, a similar campaign launched by Haiti’s soccer Federation, “Return to the Stadium,” has borne fruit for Haitian soccer.

Les Grenadiers, so named after Haitian Revolution soldiers, is made up entirely of diaspora players. Led by Spanish coach David Badia, all 25 players on this year’s team were either born abroad or currently play for clubs mainly in Europe and North America.

Jeffrey Kassing , a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, studies the relationship among soccer, migration and diaspora identity. He has seen this “reverse-flow migration” of players from wealthier countries representing their parents’ countries of origin in various sports and locations. In a 2025 research article on the topic he co-authored, Kassing explains in detail how countries can draw on talent developed outside their borders to strengthen their national teams.

“In that sense, despite disadvantages to local-based players and some other sociocultural effects,” Kassing said, “reverse-flow migration is a benefit to Haiti like it is to several countries — including Curaçao, Cape Verde, Morocco and Mexico, among others.”

Blanc sees the phenomenon working in Haiti’s diaspora-led team bringing it back to the FIFA World Cup after a 52-year absence. She said the reactions and solidarity that Haitians showed around the World Cup run prove that football has extraordinary power to unite and transform Haiti.

“Football is a powerful means for the country to bring unity and positive transformation,” she said. “These players being raised in other systems can push the leaders to develop the sports infrastructure, youth development programs and other socio-economic projects.”

Even with the benefits, Blanc said, Saturday’s contrast is difficult to ignore. The Haitian players will still know they are not at home because Miami is not Port-au-Prince, she said. And numerically, she said, the U.S. team may still hold the advantage.

“It’s good news that Haiti is allowed to host its game in the Haitian-heavy Miami area,” Blanc said. “But still, hosting your match in the opposing team’s territory creates an upside-down scenario.”

As the opening whistle blows at 4:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, each team will try to take an upper hand in the tie before the return leg on Nov. 17 at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Knocking out the USMNT to reach the tournament’s semifinals will mean an automatic berth in the 2027 Gold Cup. In the two nations’ last 10 meetings , LesGrenadiers recorded five defeats and five draws.

Still, fans like Rickenson Cher-Frère, the owner of a multi-service store in Fort Lauderdale that resells match tickets, believe Haiti can prevail. In yet another Facebook Live video from the Little Haiti Cultural Complex promoting pre-match events, Cher-Frère boasted about the impact of being in Miami.

“Haitians will not be subdued like smaller crowds,” he said. “Our soul is here. We should beat the U.S.”

This report is a collaboration between The Haitian Times and The Associated Press.