Sport On The Internet: Reggae Boyz of Jamaica call the tune
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Your support makes all the difference.So now we know the draw and what England and Scotland have to do to qualify for the last 16.
According to the world rankings on the official website of Fifa, world football's governing body, England are in the toughest group. England are ranked at 6, up from 12 at the beginning of the year, but Romania are 5, Colombia 9 and even Tunisia are 23. Scotland are out at 36, behind all three of their group, Brazil (1), Norway (14) and Morocco (16).
The site also contains such gems about the official match ball, which "features a newly engineered hi-tech foam layer, which improves on the high compression rapid responce [sic] polyurethane". It is also "softer and faster than its predecessor". Well I'm glad I know that.
Perhaps I tried the site on a busy day, but there were problems getting through to various other sections. It does have the feel of an official site with the conservatism one might expect.
A plethora of more interesting unofficial sites is bound to spring up. The unofficial World Cup site is a little more lively and has all the qualifying results, history plus videos of great goals from World Cups from 1930.
One of the more interesting associated World Cup sites is Reggaeboyz, the unofficial site of Jamaica. There is great debate going on whether their English- born, but Jamaica-qualified players should be added to the squad. You can add your vote.
The official England site is disappointing. You would be hard pressed to know that there was a World Cup next year, let alone with England playing in it. The Jamaica site puts it to shame.
For a good World Cup archive and statistics site you could do much worse than the International Football Archive, which includes a full World Cup section.
You have to be selective in your web searches. Entering "Fifa" gives you a drum and bass group of that name led by Digital Bob.
ADDRESSES
Official Fifa site
http://www.fifa.com/index.html
World Cup France98 (unofficial site)
http://www.worldcup.fr/uk/ index.html
Jamaica's Web Site
http://www.reggaeboyz.com
England's Official site
http://www.greenflag.co.uk/te/index.html
International/World Cup Archive
http://www.rdasilva. demon.co.uk/football/ worldcup.htm
Sporting Life
http://www.sporting-life. com/soccer/worldcup/news/
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