Toward more than half a century that Haiti was not participating in the World Cup and yet, ironies of history, in the country (and the sports press of the rest of the planet) they are not talking about their players or their chances of success today in their debut match against Scotland. What is being talked about is his t-shirt. About its meaning, its colors, what exactly its designers wanted to capture in it and whether FIFA has acted well by demanding Haiti to change it.
To understand it you have to go back to the 19th century.
What has happened? We don’t know how Haiti will fare its world premiere today against Scotland (the match is played at 9:00 p.m. ET in Boston), what we do know is that, no matter what happens, their participation in the FIFA Cup is already football history. First because it did 52 years that the Caribbean nation did not qualify for the tournament. In fact, he had only achieved it once. in 1974when he participated (with little success) in the World Cup in West Germany.
The second reason is that, even before the ball began to bounce on Thursday at the Azteca stadium, Haiti was already one of the teams with the most headlines in the World Cup. And the reason is surprising: his uniform. Or rather, a detail in the lower right corner of his shirt that FIFA did not like.
What is the shirt like? We could see the shirt of the Haitian team a few days agoduring the friendly match that played on Friday the 5th against Peru. The design has also been shown in the profiles of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF) or even in the official website of FIFA. Also in publications of Saeta, the clothing brand Colombian sports that took on the challenge to shape the uniform and that at the end of 2025 he was already thinking about the design and its details.
On March 28, the company finally published a post on his Instagram account in which the three Haitian team shirts could be seen: one blue (home), another white (visitor) and a third red. A nod to the colors of the country’s flag and two concepts: the sea and passion. Otherwise, the design was very simple: red collar and sleeve ends with a white stripe, the FHF shield at chest level, the Saeta brand… and a kind of very faint illustration, made up of shadowed silhouettes, at the level of the right hip.
What does that flag mean? The image in question shows a group of men with a clearly highlighted silhouette in the foreground holding a flag. The key is… What colors does that banner look like? If we look at the t-shirts with a white or red background, it seems that the flag shows a blue stripe on a red stripe, the colors of Haiti. If we look at the shirt with a blue background, the bluish part of the flag however fades so much that it appears white.
That last was the option the team used in your game on friday 5 against Peru and automatically led some to see a nod from the Caribbean nation to Poland.
Is it really like that? A tweet from the 9th that ended up going viral points in that direction and many other international media (generalists and sports) have jumped on the bandwagon by publishing that, indeed, the Haitian shirt includes a deliberate tribute to Poland. Others believe that if the flag appears white and red (an effect that occurs in the home kit, but not in the others) it is the result of a factory error. In recent days they have circulated on networks voices who insisted on one and another version: intended tribute either optical illusion.
Click on the image to go to the tweet.
Poland, for the sake of what? If the doubts had been pointed towards the flag of the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, the United States, Japan or any other nation on the planet, they would probably have been cleared up soon, but not with Poland.
The reason is very simple: with history books in hand, Haiti has reason to be grateful to the Poles. To understand it we have to go back to the beginning of the 19th century, more specifically to the Battle of Vertieres (1803), in which the Haitian revolutionaries defeated Napoleon’s troops, ended colonial rule and cleared the way for Haiti to achieve its independence. In that episode the Poles played an unexpected role.
What role? Its role was explained in 2003 by Dr. Zdzislaw Wesolowski in a speech pronounced in the USA: in 1802 5,000 Poles from a legion attached to the French army were transferred to the Caribbean to quell the uprising in the colony of Saint-Dominguethe current Haiti and Dominican Republic.
It is assumed that many fought on the side of France for Napoleon’s promise to restore freedom to his Poland. Shortly after arriving in the Caribbean, however, the Poles began to disobey the command and joined the rebels. At the end of 1803, in Verières, allies were already fighting with Jean-Jacques Dessalineswho proclaimed the independence of Haiti shortly after, in January 1804.
What do we know about the happy shirt? When he started thinking about the design, in December 2025, Saeta explained that he was “collecting ideas, cultural references and identity elements” to “create an authentic and representative garment.” He wanted to “reflect the history, energy and resilience of the town.”
With that starting point, it is supposed that the silhouettes located on the right hip refer to the Ballata de Viertières and the Haitian Revolution. One of his iconic moments actually came when Dessalines tore the white stripe off a French tricolor flag to create the banner of the first republic free black, an episode that was celebrated every May 18.
What has FIFA said? Whether it represents one thing or another, whether its effect is more or less intended, the reality is that the decoration has not convinced to FIFA. The federation finds it too “political”, which has led the Caribbean team to change your shirt in extremis, just a few days before its premiere in Boston. However, that does not mean that they share the organization’s judgment.
“After a misinterpretation, FIFA officials asked the federation to remove an image in which Vertières and some independence heroes appeared raising the Haitian flag,” explained these days to The New York Times a spokesperson for the Caribbean team. Hence, the Haitian organization has asked Saeta to change his equipment for the World Cup.
What has the brand said? something similar: that there has been an “interpretation” that does not correspond to what the creators of the shirt were looking for, but that despite everything it is necessary to rethink the original design. “The final design was intended to be a tribute to the men and women who contribute every day to the future of Haiti, and was not intended to constitute a political statement,” points out.
“During the review process, FIFA determined that certain elements could be interpreted differently under its kit regulations and ultimately requested changes to the design. Although this interpretation differed from our intention, Saeta respected the process and implemented the final requirements.”
Does context matter? A lot. And not only because of the symbolic value of Haiti’s participation in a World Cup after more than half a century of absences. FIFA’s wake-up call comes after another similar episode noted earlier this year, when the IOC issued a similar reprimand to the Caribbean nation during the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
The initial equipment of its two athletes included an image of Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian revolution, a tribute that for the Olympic Committee contravention its rules on political symbology. In recent days some voices have pointed out also the fact that FIFA criticizes the political charge of a symbol of the 19th century while barely six months ago awarded his Peace Prize to Trump applauding his “effort to promote peace.”
Images | FHF (Facebook) and Arrow 1 and 2
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings