Haiti: Doping pioneers

Jean-Claude Duvalier died on October 4th. He was the son of François Duvalier aka "Papa Doc", a Haitian dictator. "Bébé Doc" (Jean-Claude) became Haiti's leader in 1971. That was the year when Haiti had a flag change. Duvalier tried to reconstruct the flag... in a nationalist way! How? He actually brought back the colors of the 19th Century, from the Haitian Empire era, which are black and red, used worldwide by nationalists.

Duvalier's era flag. The flag has a vertical separation, while the Coat of Arms is bigger than the one below, with dark colors.

Today's flag. The separation is now horizontal. The Coat of Arms is smaller than in the first picture. The black color in both the main flag and the Coat of Arms has been replaced with blue.

It was then when I remembered that Haiti had competed in the 1974 World Cup with the upper flag! Oh and apart from that, Haiti National Team have a negative record, in the only World Cup they have ever competed in! It was after the Italy versus Haiti match, when FIFA decided to organize a doping control. Haiti's Ernst Jean-Joseph (now 66), a former Chicago Sting and Violette (Port-au-Prince) legend, became the first footballer who was arrested for doping (in a World Cup main tournament phase).

Just to know, from the first Group, both Germanies (West Germany and East Germany aka German Federal Republic and German Democratic Republic respectively) qualified to the next round.

Additionally, this was the first (and last?) World Cup where the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ever competed in (called Zaire between 1971 and 1997).