Dominican Republic Bans Haiti Football Team From Venues Following Stadium Clashes

Haitian football fans recently celebrated their team's return to the FIFA World Cup this year, marking its first appearance since 1974. However, the Dominican Republic has now banned Haiti’s national football team from playing at its sports venues following crowd trouble at a CONCACAF Nations League match between the two island neighbours.

Sports Minister Kelvin Cruz announced the ban after incidents occurred before the match on Thursday night at the entrances to the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo. Video posted on social media showed groups of fans forcing some entrances, with one gate damaged.

“What we saw yesterday with a gate at the Felix Sanchez, a sports facility that has cost millions and millions of pesos to make it shine, is unacceptable,” Cruz said, citing a zero-tolerance policy on indiscipline. Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader backed the decision, stating: “The position of the Sports Minister is the position of the Government.”

Haiti’s embassy in Santo Domingo responded by saying the remarks, made “in the heat of competition and the intensity characteristic of sporting events”, did not reflect the position of the Haitian government and thanked Dominican authorities for the event. “Sporting rivalries must not call into question relations of good neighborliness and mutual respect that must prevail between the two states,” the embassy added in a statement.

In a post on X after the match, the federation called it a “beautiful night for Haiti, beautiful night for the island we share”, adding: “On the field, competition; off the field, respect for the neighbor.”

Haiti won the match 4-1, with Sunderland striker Wilson Isidor scoring twice. The win gave Haiti nine points in Group A, while the Dominican Republic remained on six points. Haiti was scheduled to play Costa Rica in San Jose on Sunday.

During the events, Isidor was filmed saying: “Hispaniola is Haiti.” Hispaniola is the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which have long clashed over migration and border security. Dominican Football Federation president Jose Deschamps called Isidor’s remark “a lack of respect for national sovereignty” and stated that the federation would file a complaint with FIFA and CONCACAF.

President Luis Abinader’s government has stepped up deportations of undocumented Haitians since October 2024, when it pledged to deport up to 10,000 people a week. Sport has previously been drawn into the neighbours’ disputes; in 2023, after Abinader shut the border in a dispute over a Haitian canal on the shared Massacre River, Haiti’s sports ministry ordered its football federation to stop staging national team matches in the Dominican Republic.