A MATCH OF PEACE and a piece of map!!

February 2004-a rebellion in Haiti killed over 300 nationals and left President Jean-Bertrand Aristide running for his life. The country was in turmoil and so the United Nations stepped in to take control, apparently! Their peace keeping troops included a significant number of Brazilians, which gave the UN an idea!

Of course, the Brazilian national team was very popular in Haiti and when the Brazilians won the World Cup in 2002, there was awarded a Two Day National Holiday! The UN proposed a friendly football match between Haiti and Brazil-O Jogo da Paz...yes you guessed it-"A Match of Peace". It was considered that this would help unification between the warring nations.  The match, organized by the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), aimed to foster a spirit of unity and peace among Haitians.

Brazil agreed and "waived" their normal $1 million "match fee". The Haitian Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue offered $1,000 to the first home player to score a goal in the match. O Jogo da Paz, would quickly become the Haitian most talked about match, since Emmanuel Sanion scored against Italy in the 1974 FIFA World Cup Finals!! Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended the game, which was viewed as a positive step in Haiti's reconstruction efforts. 

Ticket allocation proved to be tricky and the organisers came up with an idea of "exchanging tickets for guns"!!! Then somebody suggested that  the "Match of Peace" might turn into a blood bath if thousands of armed nationals turned up and were unable to gain adnission. Instead, tickets were given out to students and their families. SAFE!!??

Thousands lined the streets of the capital, Port-au Prince, as the visitors landed and made their way in their armoured "tank" to the freshly fumigated Stadium Silvio Cator. The visitors line up included Ronaldo (the "original"), Kaka and Roberto Carlos, but it was Ronaldinho who made the news, weaving his way through the opposition defenders to bag a hat trick! He clearly had not paid attention to the Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's pre-match talk, when he jokingly asked the players not to score TOO many goals, as this was a "good will mission". The local crowd didn't seem to mind, however, as they enjoyed any excuse for a party. However, the political situation did not improve and many of the home, national players soon defected to America!! FOR 90 MINUTES, Haiti forgot its woes and enjoyed a football match to celebrate for years to come. Brazil won 6-0. Haiti in PURPLE.