In more than 100 years of sport, Haiti built only the Sylvio Cator stadium, formerly Paul Magloire Stadium inaugurated on July 12, 1952. For the rest of the country, we were content with old parks and in the majority of cases it was empty lots with bamboo poles with a rope acting as cross bars while the play area served as a public market on Saturday, when it was not cattle yards that were used as playgrounds on Sundays.

It was in 2004 that the Haitian Football Federation (FHF) managed to persuade the Boniface-Latortue Government to intervene and change with the cooperation of Taiwan, the faces of Parks Levelt, St Victor and Vincent with a natural lawn and an embryo of lighting for the night games which changed the life of the Clubs of these cities and gave a better level of play.

The years 2010-2015 have changed a lot and many parks have been built under the Martelly-Lamothe Government. Despite criticism of the poor quality of finishing of these infrastructures, about twenty multi-sports parks were built on the whole national territory.

However, no development and maintenance plan for the new facilities has been put in place to benefit and sustain these investments and in several cities: Cite Soleil, Dessalines, Hinche, Miragoane, Saint-Marc, Papaye, Bel Air among others, the centers are unfinished and abandoned to themselves without any administration...

Since the arrival of the Moïse-Lafontant Government, the FHF and the football family have been encouraging the new authorities to look into these infrastructures, which are a major achievement for the country, and it is now necessary to finalize and have these lands homologated in accordance with FIFA standards and, above all, urgently set up a maintenance structure to protect the playing surfaces by acquiring the necessary machinery.

Recall that President Jovenel Moïse approached Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, for technical assistance to install solar lighting systems that can be used to play games at night. Following this request, FIFA informed the Head of State that, as part of this assistance, it was ready to experiment in Haiti with a solar lighting system.

To be continued...

HL/ BF/ HaitiLibre