Haiti have been forced to change their 2026 World Cup shirts just days before facing Scotland in their first game after Fifa ruled that parts of the design could be viewed as ‘political’.
The Concacaf side begin their group stage campaign on Saturday, but much of the discussion before kick-off has focused on what they’ll be wearing rather than how they’ll play.
The Caribbean nation are appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 1974 and had already unveiled a set of jerseys that proved hugely popular with supporters.
Produced by manufacturer Saeta, the shirts came in blue, white and red versions, all of which proved very popular back home and with Haitian emigrants across the world. Stock very quickly sold out online.
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The designs featured red collars and sleeves, with Haiti’s badge positioned in the centre of the chest. The issue that caught Fifa’s attention, however, was elsewhere on the shirt, specifically artwork placed on the right hip area.
The imagery depicts silhouettes that are inspired by the Battle of Vertières and the Haitian Revolution. Those references point to one of the most significant periods in Haiti’s history and remain an important part of the country’s national identity.
One of the central figures linked to that history was Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who later became Haiti’s first emperor. In 1803, he removed the white section from a French flag to create a new banner for what became known as the world’s first free black republic.
That moment continues to be commemorated across the country every year on 18 May during Haitian Flag Day. Despite its historical significance, Fifa concluded that some elements of the design could be interpreted differently under its equipment regulations.
Saeta said that it’d spent months working alongside the Haitian Football Federation coming up with a shirt design that celebrated ‘the pride, resilience and spirit of the Haitian people’.
According to the company, multiple concepts were developed and refined before being submitted through Fifa’s standard approval process.
The manufacturer said the final design was intended as a tribute to Haitians that are helping to shape the country’s future and ‘was not intended as a political statement’. However, it said Fifa requested changes during the review process after determining that certain visual elements could be interpreted differently under tournament rules.
While Saeta said that its own interpretation differed from Fifa’s, it ultimately accepted the decision and made the requested alterations. The company said it respected the approval process and remained proud of the role it had played in preparing Haiti for the tournament.
By this week, evidence that the redesign had already been completed was easy to spot. In official World Cup portrait photographs released by Fifa on Tuesday, Haiti’s players were wearing shirts that no longer included the disputed imagery.
That represented a noticeable change from Haiti’s recent preparations for the tournament. The squad wore the original versions of the shirts during pre-World Cup friendlies against New Zealand and Peru last week.
Supporters hoping to get hold of those original designs may be out of luck. All three versions have sold out through Saeta’s website and there has been no sign of replacement stock being prepared. You’d have to imagine these will quickly become collectors’ items amongst football shirt fans.
Fifa’s own online store offers surprisingly little for fans of the team either. At present, the governing body sells just two Haiti-specific items: a scarf and a trucker hat.
The World Cup dispute is not the first time this year that a Haitian team have had to alter competition clothing at short notice. Earlier in 2026, the country’s athletes faced a similar issue before the Winter Olympics in Milan.
The International Olympic Committee required Haiti’s ski suits to be redesigned after artwork created by designer Stella Jean was found to breach rules covering design and athlete expression. Like the World Cup shirts, the imagery in question included a revolutionary figure.
For now, attention will return to events on the pitch as Haiti prepare to take on Scotland in their opening match. They’ll still be wearing shirts inspired by their national story, just not quite the same version that supporters rushed to buy before the tournament began.
The build-up to the World Cup hasn’t been short of distractions. England fans heading to Spanish holiday hotspots for the tournament have already been warned about strict restrictions affecting late-night match screenings.