HMS Curlew - football team v Haitians at Port au Prince, 1924
The photograph shows the crew team of HMS Curlew, a light cruiser of the Royal Navy, about to play a match in Port au Prince on March 8th 1924. In July that year Curlew went to Brazil, but not for football, but to intercede in a rebellion.
The Haitian team are identified simply as Haitians.
One of the principal teams in Port au Prince , Violette Athletic Club (founded in 1918), plays in blue and whirte stripes, and Racing Club Haïtien (founded 1923) also wear stripes in some early photographs.
There is a possibility, however, that the team were a proto national side. Early pictures of the national team, who played their first international in March 1925 (against Jamaica) , show that they, too, sported striped jerseys.
Domestic histories are sketchy, but there is evidence of a Haitian championship as early as 1912 and a cup competition in 1927.
Fédération Haïtienne de Football dates from 1904, and the country attained FIFA affiliation in 1933.
Acknowledgements to Mr Gordon Smith at http://www.naval-history.net/
