Teams of followers pressured via entrances, damaging a gate on the groups’ CONCACAF Nations League match in Santo Domingo.
Revealed On 3 Oct 2026
The Dominican Republic has banned Haiti’s nationwide soccer staff from enjoying at its sports activities venues after crowd bother at a CONCACAF Nations League match between the 2 island neighbours.
Sports activities Minister Kelvin Cruz introduced the ban after incidents earlier than the match on Thursday evening on the entrances to the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo.
Video posted on social media confirmed teams of followers forcing some entrances, with one gate broken.
“What we noticed yesterday with a gate on the Felix Sanchez, a sports activities facility that has value hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of pesos to make it shine, is unacceptable,” Cruz mentioned, citing a zero-tolerance coverage on indiscipline.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader backed the choice, saying: “The place of the Sports activities Minister is the place of the Authorities.”
Haiti’s embassy in Santo Domingo mentioned the remarks, made “within the warmth of competitors and the depth attribute of sporting occasions”, didn’t mirror the place of the Haitian authorities and thanked Dominican authorities for the occasion.
“Sporting rivalries should not name into query relations of excellent neighborliness and mutual respect that should prevail between the 2 states,” the embassy mentioned in a press release.
In a publish on X after the match, the federation known as it a “lovely evening for Haiti, lovely evening for the island we share”, including: “On the sector, competitors; off the sector, respect for the neighbor.”
Haiti gained the match 4-1, with Sunderland striker Wilson Isidor scoring twice. The win gave Haiti 9 factors in Group A, whereas the Dominican Republic remained on six factors. Haiti play Costa Rica in San Jose on Sunday.
Isidor was filmed saying: “Hispaniola is Haiti.” Hispaniola is the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which have lengthy clashed over migration and border safety.
Dominican Soccer Federation president Jose Deschamps known as Isidor’s comment “an absence of respect for nationwide sovereignty” and mentioned the federation would file a grievance with FIFA and CONCACAF.
Abinader’s authorities has stepped up deportations of undocumented Haitians since October 2024, when it pledged to deport as much as 10,000 folks every week.
Sport has been drawn into the neighbours’ disputes earlier than.
In 2023, after Abinader shut the border in a dispute over a Haitian canal on the shared Bloodbath River, Haiti’s sports activities ministry ordered its soccer federation to cease staging nationwide staff matches within the Dominican Republic.
