Jamaica Today: Sports

The Condeferation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Federations (CONCACAF) announced on May 25, that it would be supporting the candidacy of Secretary General Sepp Blatter, rather than UEFA President Lennart Johansson in the upcoming June 8 poll for a new FIFA President to replace incumbent 82 year old Joao Havelange. CONCACAF said that Blatter would continue the good work of Havelange and offer continuity in the democratisation of world football.

Lady Bangalore won the 59th Jamaica Oaks at Caymanas Park on Monday May 25. The Harry Jaghai trained and Barbadian Simon Husbands ridden maiden won by 10 1/4 lengths from second favourite Tassy Wassy with pre-race favourite Bijoux finishing fourth over 20 lengths adrift.

West Indies Manager, Guyanese cricketing icon Clive Lloyd, announced that he would be willing to relocate to the Caribbean, suggesting that he was opening the way for consideration as a full test selector.

The Sports Page was designed to work in the same way as the News Page. There would be a main story, and three or four shorter items. We struggled with the page for the first few weeks because no one on staff was a real sports buff. Then we convinced Alvin Campbell to do it. He had just finished writing a book on Merlene Ottey and followed Jamaican sports religiously.

For most of the time that Jamaica Today was online, Alvin tried to update this page twice weekly. Later, he began adding sports statistics such as the performance of Jamaican atheletes in the Olympics and the Pan American Games. Below is the first paragraph of the last story Alvin wrote for this page. At left are the items that ran with it.

The Jamaicans will be playing the Caribbean All-Stars on Sunday,June 31, just two days before the deadline for submission of their World Cup squad of 22 players. Technical Director Rene Simoes has indicated that he will not be naming the squad before June 2 and supporters of the Reggae Boyz are expecting the squad for the New York match, including 7 English based players to be strongly indicative of those selected for World Cup duty. Of particular interest will be the decision regarding the exclusion or inclusion of troubled striker Walter "Blacka" Boyd who recently offered a public apology for his past behaviour to all Jamaica and announced that he had been undergoing counselling from the Jamaica Football Federation chaplain.

Rank: Team: Points:
Mar 98 Rank:
Feb 98 Change
Since
Feb 98 Rank:
Dec 97 Change
Since
Dec 97

1
Brazil
71.75 1 0 1 0

2
Germany
64.84 2 0 2 0

3
Czech Republic
62.82 3 0 3 0

4
Mexico
61.39 5 1 4 0

5
England
60.06 4 -1 5 0

6
Argentina
60.04 17 11 7 1

7
Norway
59.65 13 6 12 5

8
Yugoslavia
59.36 20 12 8 0

9
Chile
58.98 16 7 6 -3

10
Columbia
58.16 10 0 13 3

30
Jamaica
52.25 39 9 31 1