(chinadaily.com.cn/FIFA)
Updated: 2007-12-24 17:10

Revolution once again stalks the streets of Haiti. However, this time, subversive talk is not being conducted in the hushed undertones of darker times and fear. This is excited chatter with a common theme - a football revolution is being celebrated in Haiti.

There have been 33 years of turbulent and continual political strife since striker Manno Sanon sent the small Caribbean nation wild with excitement when he scored the opening goal against Italy in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The Haitian supporters enjoyed just six minutes of delirium before the Italians scored and went on to 3-1. But football remains a passion in Haiti.

This year, in South Korea, fans of football will once again see Haitian players taking a bow on the international stage. This time at the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Dominic Vorbe, brother of the 1974 captain, Philipe, has been a witness to both tournaments. “There was a great madness when the 74’ team qualified,” he says. “The whole country was behind the team and we were so proud. It's the same thing like right now with the U-17’s…...there is something brewing. Football is not a sport in Haiti. It is a religion. Even in great hardship, you will always find a soccer game going on.”

For coach, Jean Yves Labaze, the country’s debut in this competition is a source of huge pride and excitement and he has no intention of just being there to make up the numbers.

“The FIFA World Cup - that is the peak at whatever age level”, he says. “Everyone would love to be in a World Cup, any player and any trainer. For us, it is a great step for the future of this country. We are going to take part - first of all - and then we are going to take part to win.”

It has been a long road to this happier revolution but, against almost impossible odds, football is thriving again in Haiti. The country shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with its neighbour the Dominican Republic and is the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and 154th of 177 countries in the UN’s Human Development Index (2006). Eighty per cent of the country lives in abject poverty. Despite this, football’s pulse continues to beat strongly.

The flight and exile of former-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, international intervention and the stabilising presence of the UN are just beginning to show signs of a brighter future. The painfully slow recovery of this nation at a political, social and economic level is being mirrored by results on the field. And this squad of young talent is fostering hope across the nation.

Fabien Vorbe, a key goal-scorer for the U-17 team and another member of the Vorbe football dynasty, echoes these sentiments: “People always talk about Haiti’s misfortunes but, by getting to this tournament, it means that the country is getting better.”

The facilities and infrastructure that the team has at its disposal now are extremely basic. In the wake of Aristide’s departure, the Haitian ‘Ranch’ football training centre was entirely destroyed in the orgy of destruction that swept through the country.

“It hurt to see the population go into a church of football and destroy it. Right down to the level of stealing the toilets and burning the physio bench,” says Dominic Vorbe.

It has been a case of building from rock bottom, with funding from FIFA ‘Goal’ programme and facilities are improving.

For anyone who witnesses the extreme poverty in Haiti, it is impossible to not be affected by it. Scars of the post-Aristide turmoil still lie openly on the landscape. They are clearly visible on the headquarters of the federation and the ranch, which has only been half rebuilt.

Antoine Dorair, head of the ranch training facility says: “The state suddenly collapsed and wasn’t capable of supporting the federation. Football was suffering greatly and had to be resuscitated.” However, he sees a positive future, with investment going into both the infrastructure and crucially the coaching.

“With the new buildings, we can concentrate the whole squad there. Haitian Football will step up a gear, at both a national and international level,” he claims.

Will the wider world of football underestimate the Haitian team at the Under-17 event? To do so would be a mistake. A warm-up match at the Stad Sylvyo Kato saw the team play host to a US college side - The Cleveland City Stars.

Stars’ coach Rich Mears was somewhat perturbed, stating that he “had asked for an Under-23 side and hoped that they could get a least a good game out of it.” His team were “top college players in the 18-23 year old bracket” and his captain “played for the national Zambian Team”. “I am not sure they realise the level that college soccer is in the States,” he retorted.

The humiliation certainly never came. In front of a boisterous home crowd, but fighting the odds of age and size and power, the Haitian U-17’s put up a valiant performance and promptly won 2-1!

This is a lesson to be learned for those facing this team, which has played as a group since they were aged eleven. There is an easy friendship and mutual respect, built by spending years together honing their game and forged by the uncertain environment in which they have grown up. As they gather round a single portable DVD player, in some down-time at the ranch, watching the skills of Lionel Messi and co, it is clear that while they admire the current greats, they are going to do the FIFA Under-17 World Cup their own way.

Striker Charles Herold Junior states that the team has a “determination and anger to succeed” and will not buckle on the bigger stage. “We played in front of 40,000 people in Honduras who were cheering us or hissing us - it was not a problem.”

Fabian Vorbe agrees: “We don't accept that any team is better than us. Even faced with the Brazilians, or the English, we say that the Haitians are better and that is what we are going to show the world. My dream in life is to play professional football, to follow a professional career. And I know that, in order to find a good professional team, you have to do well in the World Cup, so it makes me work hard.”

Haiti is a country that is blessed with natural football talent. However, it needs to be relieved of the spectre of political instability and find some much-needed funding if it is to continue to make football progress. When the Haitian team walked out to play its first FIFA U-17 World Cup match, it was 11 versus 11 but they were beaten 3-1 by Japan and now face an equally tough task first against France and then Nigeria. However, with all this team has had to overcome and the resources at its disposal, is it truly a level playing field?

This Haiti team will not give thought to that. They are on the world stage and will just continue to stick to their core ethos: “Respect the Game and enjoy it. Everything else will flow naturally.”