Haiti have beaten Nicaragua 2-0 to qualify for just their second ever World Cup – despite their manager having never been to the Caribbean island.
The team’s 52-year-old French coach, Sebastien Migne, has been unable to set foot on Haiti since being appointed 18 months ago because a conflict in the country forces them to play their home matches 500 miles away in Curacao – an island nation just off the coast of South American country Venezuela.
Since Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, the country has been in turmoil. Armed gangs have taken control of almost all of the nation’s capital Port-au-Prince in a conflict that has forced some 1.3m people from their homes and fuelled famine-level hunger.
Travellers are warned against visiting the nation of 12m people because of the risk of kidnappings, crimes, terrorist activity and civil unrest.
“It’s impossible because it’s too dangerous,” said Migne.
“I usually live in the countries where I work, but I can’t here. There are no more international flights landing there,” he told France Football magazine.
Migne, who was Cameroon’s assistant at the last World Cup, relied on information about local players from Haitian football federation officials by telephone. “They gave me information, and I managed the team remotely.”
Their squad is now all foreign-based and includes Wolves’ France-born midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde. They also hope to persuade Sunderland forward Wilson Isidor, who was born in France to Haitian parents, to join them.
More than half of the squad were born in Haiti though, while the others are children of Haitian parents.
Haiti’s victory over Nicaragua sealed their place at the summer’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada for the first time since 1974.
They will be joined by Panama, who beat El Salvador 3-0, and World Cup debutant Curacao after they drew with Jamaica as qualifiers from the Concacaf region.
In Haiti’s only other World Cup appearance, they were beaten by Italy, Poland and Argentina as they were knocked out in the first round.
