The Haitian national soccer team will base its 2026 FIFA World Cup operations at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey, joining Brazil, Morocco, and Senegal in selecting the New Jersey area as its tournament training and accommodation hub, according to The New York Times.
A formal announcement of all four base camps is expected this week, the Times reported, citing sources familiar with the tournament planning.
The selection places Haiti in close geographic proximity to its three group-stage opponents and to MetLife Stadium, the East Rutherford venue scheduled to host the World Cup final on July 19. For Haitian-American fans across the United States — particularly in the densely populated diaspora of New York, New Jersey, and Boston — the Galloway base means the national team will spend the tournament within a short drive of communities that have waited 52 years for this moment.
Stockton University, located in Galloway Township, southern New Jersey, near Atlantic City, will provide training and accommodation facilities for the Haitian delegation. The New York Times reported that the campus previously hosted the Brazilian club Flamengo during the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer of 2025.
The Haitian Football Federation has not yet released a public statement on the decision, but the choice gives the team access to a full Division III athletics infrastructure on a coastal campus roughly 2.5 hours by road from MetLife Stadium and within reach of Philadelphia.
A Region Loaded with Talent
The New Jersey area now ranks as one of the two most in-demand training regions across the three host countries — the United States, Canada, and Mexico — alongside Kansas City, which will host the base camps for Argentina, England, the Netherlands, and Algeria, according to the New York Times.
Brazil, the five-time World Cup champion and 1994 winner on U.S. soil, will use the New York Red Bulls’ Columbia Park Training Center in Morris Township as its operations base. The 80-acre facility recently underwent improvements that the Times reported cost more than $100 million.
Morocco, which reached the semifinals at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, will train at the Pingry School. The school was previously used as a base camp during the 1994 World Cup, when Italy — that tournament’s eventual finalist — chose it for training.
Senegal, originally declared champions of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations before tournament organizers reversed the final result, will train at Rutgers University. Senegal is scheduled to play two group-stage matches at MetLife Stadium — against France on June 16 and Norway on June 22.
Brazil, Haiti, and Morocco are also drawn together in the same group, meaning all three teams will be training within roughly an hour’s drive of each other through much of the group stage.
A Diplomatic Reset Between FIFA and New Jersey
The base camp announcements arrive at a moment of relative calm between FIFA and New Jersey state officials, after weeks of public disagreement over local transportation costs.
According to the Times, the dispute centered on a New Jersey Transit decision to raise round-trip rail fares between New York’s Penn Station and MetLife Stadium to as much as $150 during the tournament. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill defended the pricing decision, arguing that she would not ask state taxpayers to absorb an estimated $48 million in transportation costs while FIFA projects more than $11 billion in tournament revenue.
FIFA, in turn, cited lower transportation costs in other host markets and warned that the New Jersey approach could have what The New York Times described as a “chilling” effect.
In a statement quoted by the New York Times welcoming the four national teams, Sherrill said her state is “excited to welcome the world” and described the tournament as a “once-in-a-generation event.”
For CTN viewers and for the broader Haitian community in the United States and Canada, the Galloway selection sets the geographic anchor for diaspora coverage of the tournament. The base camp’s proximity to major Haitian-American population centers in northern New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens, Boston, and Philadelphia places the team within a manageable travel radius for fans, journalists, and community organizations seeking to engage with the squad during the tournament window of June 11 through July 19.
CTN will provide ongoing trilingual coverage of Haiti’s World Cup preparations and matches in English, French, and Haitian Creole.
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