By: Peterson Pierre-Louis

The Haitian women’s team led by Melchie Daëlle and Nérilia Mondésir and other executives brought a breath of hope to Haitian women’s football. A historic participation in the World Cup, followed by a major decline due to the lack of vision of the leaders of the mother institution of national football.

With a double from Corventina Dumornay against Chile in February 2023 in the play-off matches for the World Cup, Haiti had validated and honored its first participation in a Women’s World Cup final phase. Arriving at the World Cup, the Grenadières recorded 3 defeats. 1-0 against England, 1-0 against China and 2-0 against Denmark. Despite the 3 defeats, the world of women’s football had its eyes fixed on Haiti, especially with the performance of the Grenadières against England for their entry into the competition.

After this historic participation with zero goals scored including 4 conceded. The former coach was criticized and forced to leave his post. The FHF then appointed a new technical staff in September 2023. Frédéric Gonçalves officially took over the Grenadières on September 7. With a glaring lack of activity from an FHF led by a normalization committee without vision; in 10 months the national selection has played only 5 official matches during the Gold Cup qualifiers including a painful defeat against Puerto Rico.

After this defeat against Puerto Rico, the Haitian selection has not played any friendly match. While all the selections of the Concacaf zone are in maximum preparation.

With this lack of friendly matches, despite the fact that Haiti has quality players who can raise the country among the leaders of the zone. As they did against Mexico in 2022. On the other hand, the leaders do not seem to be up to this dimension.

It should be remembered that the next Women’s World Cup will be in 3 years, in Brazil. Until then, the leaders have never shown the will to advance this women’s national team. What is the objective of the current leaders for Haitian women’s football, especially concerning the various women’s national selections?

This lack of activity of the national team has just been justified with the appointment of coach Frédéric Gonçalves at the head of Olympique Marseille in the French women’s D2. The FHF has never said a word on this matter. The leaders are still swimming in amateurism.

The Haitian women’s selection will of course have a new technical staff. Because the Franco-Portuguese coach after his appointment at the head of the Marseille club could experience difficulties in leading two teams, especially the objective of the French club is to return to the elite of French women’s football. It should be remembered that Frédéric Gonçalves made this decision because of a lack of initiatives within the national team. The Haitian Football Federation is the main culprit for the regression of the Grenadières.