Haiti, Brazil, and football-boot diplomacy

Euan Marshall - 18th June 2026

In a 2014 interview to the award-winning Second Captains podcast, the late and legendary broadcaster Michael Parkinson eloquently described the importance of sport as a way of persuading society of a world that exists outside of war, death and famine.

Rarely will those words echo truer than at this Saturdays’s World Cup encounter between Brazil and Haiti. Not just for what the occasion means to Haiti itself — being the Caribbean country’s first World Cup in more than 50 years, even amid the seemingly endless turmoil of Haiti’s gang-controlled cities — but it will be particularly poignant due to the nation’s enduring ties with its opponents Brazil, forged in the mid-2000s.

In February 2004, a coup d’état forced the resignation and exile of Haiti’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, causing the country to spiral into civil war, with armed revolts and a complete breakdown of public institutions.

In response to a cry for help from the beleaguered interim government in Port-au-Prince, the UN launched the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), promising to restore the rule of law, protect human rights, and facilitate new elections.

Correctly understanding that a US- or European-led force would be poorly received by Haitians, members of the UN Security Council invited Brazil to take the lead on MINUSTAH — a summons pounced upon by Brazil’s president Lula, just a year into his first term.

While Brazil initially sought to portray Haiti as its sister country, with shared historical and cultural roots, the first response from Port-au-Prince was frosty.

In an interview given to the Brazilian press, Haiti’s then-prime minister Gérard Latortue quipped that, if Brazil really wanted to disarm the estimated 15,000 gang members causing chaos across the country, then it shouldn’t send soldiers — it should send its World Cup-winning national football team instead.

“If you organise a friendly match between Brazil and Haiti, all the gangs will stop fighting to watch it. If you demand their weapons as tickets, lots of them will freely lay down their arms just to watch Ronaldo, Cafu or Kaká,” he said.

So, that’s what Brazil did. On 18 August, 2004, in a textbook example of football-boot diplomacy, Lula sent the men’s national team to Port-au-Prince for a friendly match against Haiti, dubbed the “Peace Game.”

Footage from the day is almost surreal. The Brazilian delegation arrived in the afternoon, only hours before the scheduled kickoff, and were paraded atop bulletproof UN tanks, taken through the Haitian capital on their way to the Sylvio Cator Stadium in the city’s south.

More than a million people lined the streets to greet the world champions, decked out in Brazil shirts, cheering and waving their flags. During the Brazilian evening news coverage of the convoy, star striker Ronaldo can be heard exclaiming that he’d never before seen such a reception for a football match.

A reported 15,000 people crammed inside Port-au-Prince’s pokey national stadium, while estimates say some 100,000 more milled around outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of the game.

On such an occasion, the football itself was largely a footnote. Brazil lined up with Júlio César in goal, a back four of Belletti, Juan, Roque Júnior and Roberto Carlos; Gilberto Silva, Edu Gaspar, Juninho Pernambucano and Roger Flores in midfield; and the small matter of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho partnering up in attack.

Brazil were 3-0 up by the break, and ended up winning 6-0, with a hat-trick from Ronaldinho, a brace from Roger Flores, and a sixth from youngster Nilmar, who would sign for Lyon a week later.

The 2005 documentary “O Dia Em Que Brasil Esteve Aqui” (The Day Brazil Were Here) followed Brazil’s trip to Port-au-Prince and returned to the city to report on its legacy. In an interview with Haiti’s starting goalkeeper Gabard Fénélon, who would continue to represent his national team until 2014, he is presented with the front page of a local newspaper from the day of the match, picturing him saving a shot from Ronaldo. “In my last minute of life on this Earth”, he said, “I’ll remember that photograph.”

The legacy of Brazil’s presence in Haiti is, understandably, far more complicated than a football match, and any successes MINUSTAH may have had were overshadowed by grave failures and injustices. In 2010, the arrival of Nepalese peacekeepers led to a cholera epidemic that killed over 30,000 Haitians, while the entire mission faced thousands of allegations of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and other human rights abuses.

From a soft power angle, the Peace Game was undeniably effective. The match solidified the already strong affinity Haitians felt for Brazil and its football. In a phenomenon repeated in many third-world countries: when their own national team isn’t playing, Haiti supports Brazil.

Amid the physical presence of MINUSTAH and the social ties binding the countries, an important migratory channel was set up between Haiti and Brazil, leading to huge numbers of people arriving in the northern Brazilian state of Acre after the tragic 2010 Haiti earthquake caused more than 100,000 deaths.

Today, the Haitian community in Brazil is around 200,000 people, according to official foreign office records. Most are concentrated in the country’s south and southeast regions, and in São Paulo — South America’s only genuinely cosmopolitan city — Haitian migrants have laid down roots in the central neighborhoods of Glicério and Cambuci.

And when the blue and red of Haiti face off against Brazil’s yellow and green on Friday in Philadelphia, it will be a testament that the bonds forged in 2004 have survived the tanks and
turmoil.

Euan Marshall will be joining our Samba Football Experience tours next year when we are in Sao Paulo. For more information on these tours please please click here

Image credit used on this page Nilton Santos/CBF