分类： sports

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Fast-food giant KFC Jamaica has locked in a fresh two-year sponsorship deal with Jamaica’s national women’s football team, the Reggae Girlz, committing a total package valued at $14 million — split between $12 million in cash and $2 million in in-kind meal products. The new agreement comes as the squad prepares to chase a groundbreaking milestone: qualification for a third straight FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Andrei Roper, Marketing Manager at KFC Jamaica, emphasized the brand’s long-standing dedication to advancing sports development across all tiers of Jamaican competition, with a particular focus on nurturing young athletic talent. In an official press statement, Roper noted that over the previous two-year partnership, the brand has closely tracked the steady expansion of women’s football across the island, particularly highlighting the emerging talent and untapped potential emerging from the domestic Women’s Premier League. That growing talent pipeline, he added, signals exciting progress for the national program and Jamaica’s standing on the global football stage.

“Our strategy centers on long-term growth, building accessible platforms and laying solid foundations for sustainable success,” Roper explained. “That is why we are proud to renew our commitment to a team that continues to carry Jamaica’s name with pride, as they edge closer to another historic World Cup berth. The Reggae Girlz are true ambassadors for both our nation and the sport of football, and we are grateful for everything they continue to achieve.”

Roper stressed that the new sponsorship is more than just financial support for one team: it represents a public vote of confidence in the broader women’s football movement in Jamaica, one that continues to empower and inspire a new generation of young girls to play the game and pursue athletic dreams across the country.

Leaders from the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) welcomed the renewed partnership, noting that the investment comes at a critical juncture in the Reggae Girlz’s qualifying campaign. JFF President Michael Ricketts called the brand’s continued backing a major boost for the team’s ongoing preparations. “We are thrilled to have KFC back with this strong show of support and their unwavering belief in the Reggae Girlz,” Ricketts said. “This commitment arrives at exactly the right time as we look to build on our current momentum. Their investment allows us to strengthen our operational systems, provide better support for our players, and maintain our competitive edge at the highest levels of international football.”

Under the terms of the deal, KFC will contribute $6 million in cash and $1 million in meal products to the team each year of the two-year agreement. The renewed partnership underscores the private sector’s growing confidence in Jamaica’s women’s football program, at a time when the Reggae Girlz are already raising the country’s global profile through consistent top-tier competition.

This latest sponsorship builds on KFC Jamaica’s already deep roots in local women’s football. The brand is currently in its second year of support for the Jamaica Women’s Premier League (JWPL), and just last month it extended that commitment through the 2025/2026 season with an additional $3.5 million in combined cash and in-kind support. KFC also backed the Reggae Girlz during their 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign, and previously held a two-year personal sponsorship deal with national team captain and all-time leading goal scorer Khadija “Bunny” Shaw.

The new deal not only strengthens the Reggae Girlz’s path through qualifying but also reinforces KFC’s ongoing mission to expand access to women’s football and increase its visibility across Jamaica. The Reggae Girlz are set to return to competitive action this weekend, kicking off their latest World Cup qualifying match against Guyana on Saturday at Kingston’s National Stadium.

On a dramatic Saturday of Bundesliga action, Bayern Munich moved within touching distance of their 35th German league title after title-chasing Borussia Dortmund suffered a frustrating 2-1 defeat away to TSG Hoffenheim. The result opens up an unassailable 12-point gap between Bayern and second-placed Dortmund, meaning Bayern will secure the crown if they avoid defeat against Stuttgart at home on Sunday.

Hoffenheim, which is still pushing hard for a coveted Champions League spot, controlled large portions of the first half against a flat Dortmund side. Just before halftime, Dortmund defender Niklas Suele was called for a handball inside the penalty area after an awkward fall, and Hoffenheim’s all-time top goalscorer Andrej Kramaric converted the spot kick. The play ended on a sour note for Dortmund, as Suele was carried off the pitch with a knee injury that club sporting director Lars Ricken confirmed appears to be serious.

After the break, substitute Serhou Guirassy netted a reply for Dortmund to level the scores, but Hoffenheim was awarded a second penalty in stoppage time. Kramaric once again stepped up to convert, marking his 156th career goal for the club and sealing three vital points that pushed Hoffenheim past Bayer Leverkusen into fifth place in the table. “To lose because of two penalties is tough,” Dortmund defender Daniel Svensson told reporters post-match. “We need more intensity — we need to end the season well.” The defeat marked Dortmund’s second consecutive loss, after the side had dropped only two matches across the entire campaign up to that point.

In the day’s late fixture, RB Leipzig’s young squad delivered a standout performance to secure a 3-1 away win over Eintracht Frankfurt, strengthening the club’s own push for Champions League qualification. It was Leipzig’s first ever win in Frankfurt across 11 previous attempts, lifting the side to third place and putting them five points clear of the newly fifth-placed Hoffenheim. Nineteen-year-old Yan Diomande opened the scoring for Leipzig with a brilliant individual effort: cutting in from the right flank before curling a precision finish into the bottom corner of the net. Frankfurt equalized just before the 30-minute mark with a header from Hugo Larsson, but Leipzig retook the lead with 20 minutes left to play through 21-year-old Antonio Nusa. Fellow 21-year-old Konrad Harder put the result beyond doubt late on with a third goal.

The biggest story of the day off the pitch came at Union Berlin, where history-making head coach Marie-Louise Eta — the first woman to lead a men’s top-flight team in any of Europe’s five biggest leagues — suffered a 2-1 defeat to relegation-fighting Wolfsburg on her debut. Appointed on an interim basis for the remainder of the season, Eta received a thunderous welcome from home fans when her name was announced before kickoff, but her side got off to a difficult start, conceding to Patrick Wimmer after just 11 minutes. Dzenan Pejcinovic doubled Wolfsburg’s lead shortly after halftime, a result that moved Wolfsburg to within two points of the relegation play-off spot held by St Pauli and six points adrift of safety. Union Berlin’s Oliver Burke scored a late consolation goal, but the home side could not find an equalizer. Despite the defeat, Union Berlin still hold a six-point buffer over the relegation play-off position with just four matches remaining in the campaign. “We talked a lot about many things this week, ultimately, it was all about football, which I was looking forward to,” Eta told reporters after the match. “I was happy to be here today but in the end it was bitter and disappointing that we’re leaving without any points.”

Elsewhere across the league, Bayer Leverkusen dropped to sixth place after a shock 2-1 home defeat to mid-table Augsburg. After Patrik Schick put Leverkusen ahead early, Augsburg’s Fabian Rieder equalized inside the opening 15 minutes, then scored a winning penalty in the seventh minute of stoppage time to deliver a major blow to Leverkusen’s hopes of finishing inside the top four. In a crucial northern derby relegation battle, Werder Bremen claimed a vital 3-1 win over Hamburger SV, which finished the match with just nine players on the pitch. Jens Stage scored a first-half brace for Bremen, separated by a Robert Glatzel strike for Hamburg, and Cameron Puertas added a late third to seal the win. The result moves Bremen five points clear of the relegation zone and level on points with Hamburg.

The latest round of Premier League Saturday fixtures delivered dramatic twists in both the relegation battle and upper-table races, leaving Tottenham Hotspur’s 50-year top-flight tenure hanging by a thread after a crushing late equalizer.

Georginio Rutter’s stoppage-time strike salvaged a 2-2 draw for Brighton & Hove Albion at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, extending Tottenham’s winless run in league play to 16 matches and keeping them mired in the relegation zone. The match marked Roberto De Zerbi’s first home game in charge of Brighton, and it was Tottenham who twice seized the lead, coming tantalizingly close to ending their months-long victory drought. Pedro Porro’s opening header was canceled out just before halftime by a spectacular volley from Kaoru Mitoma, and it looked as if Xavi Simons’ stunning 77th-minute strike would finally hand three points to the London side. But five minutes into added time, Jan Paul van Hecke outmuscled Tottenham defender Kevin Danso to square a pass to Rutter, who blasted the ball high into the net to stun the home crowd.

Tottenham, which has not competed outside England’s top flight for nearly half a century, now sit just one point behind 17th-place West Ham United in the fight for survival. However, West Ham holds a game in hand over Tottenham, and can extend their advantage when they travel to face Crystal Palace on Monday. The result also proved consequential for Wolverhampton Wanderers: Brighton’s late point prevented Wolves from being mathematically relegated on Saturday, but their eight-year stay in the Premier League still appears all but over after Leeds United’s dominant 3-0 victory.

Fresh off their first away win over Manchester United at Old Trafford since 1981, Leeds took a huge step toward securing their top-flight status, opening up an eight-point gap between themselves and the bottom three. Two goals in the opening 45 minutes from James Justin and Noah Okafor put the Yorkshire side in firm control early, before a stoppage-time penalty from Dominic Calvert-Lewin capped off the comfortable win. Leeds’ strong season bucks a recent Premier League trend: for the past two seasons, all three newly promoted teams have suffered immediate relegation back to the Championship. But Daniel Farke’s side not only looks poised to avoid the drop, but they will also face Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final next weekend, with a chance to reach their first FA Cup final since 1973.

In another high-stakes fixture at St James’ Park, Bournemouth piled additional pressure on under-fire Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe with a 2-1 away win. The result came just days after news broke that Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola will leave the club at the end of the season, but the side showed no signs of distraction. Goals from Marcus Tavernier and Adrien Truffert stretched Bournemouth’s unbeaten league run to 13 matches, lifting The Cherries up to eighth place in the table, just four points behind the current Champions League qualification spots. In contrast, Newcastle remain stuck in 14th place, with their hopes of qualifying for European competition next season all but extinguished. Despite leading Newcastle to their first domestic major trophy in 70 years last season, Howe’s future at the club is now the subject of intense speculation, with many expecting him to depart at the end of the campaign.

West London rivals Brentford and Fulham played out a tense 0-0 draw, leaving Brentford unable to leapfrog Chelsea into sixth place in the table. Chelsea will look to snap a three-game losing streak and keep their Champions League qualification hopes alive when they host Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in Saturday’s late kick-off. The Red Devils currently sit third, seven points ahead of Chelsea, but will travel to London missing multiple key first-team defenders due to injury.

All eyes now turn to Sunday’s title-deciding clash between league leaders Arsenal and reigning champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s side hold a six-point lead at the top of the table, but City hold a game in hand and will have home advantage for the critical showdown that could decide who lifts the Premier League trophy this season.

One of track and field’s rising sprint stars, Kishane Thompson — an Olympic and World Championships 100m silver medalist — has pulled out of the men’s 200m event at this Sunday’s Velocity Fest 19, held at Kingston’s National Stadium. Event organizers have not yet released any details surrounding the cause of his late withdrawal.

Now in its 19th iteration, Velocity Fest has grown into a truly international invitational meet, with athletes representing more than a dozen countries across North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and beyond set to compete. Alongside host nation Jamaica, competitors from Great Britain, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands have all registered for the day’s events, which are scheduled to get underway at 4:00 pm local time.

Despite Thompson’s absence from the 200m, the event remains stacked with world-class sprint talent that will give track fans plenty to cheer for. Headlining the men’s 200m field is 2025 100m world champion Oblique Seville and 2023 400m world champion Antonio Watson, who will both test their speed over the half-lap distance. Also set to start is Adrian Kerr, a World Championships 200m semi-finalist who ran a personal best of 20.08 seconds at the global championships, plus 2024 World Indoor 60m bronze medalist Ackeem Blake.

In the premier men’s 100m, Olympic 200m bronze medalist Bryan Levell tops the entry list, drawing a deep international field that includes British sprint star Zharnel Hughes, Mario Burke of Barbados, McKish Compton of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jelani Ellison of Canada’s Flying Angels club, and top Jamaican sprinters Bwouwahjgie Nkrumie, Kadrian Goldson, and Rohan Watson. Rounding out the field are Guyana’s Sachn Dennis and Emmanuel Archibald.

On the women’s side, two-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah leads the 100m field, where she will go head-to-head with a mix of veteran and emerging sprinters including Jonielle Smith, Jodean Williams, Natasha Morrison, Levanya Williams, Theianna-Lee Terrelonge, and teenage rising star Shevi-Anne Shim of Jamaica’s Immaculate High School. The women’s 200m will feature dynamic sibling duo Tia and Tina Clayton, alongside fellow young sprint talent Alana Reed and top sprint hurdler Ackera Nugent.

Middle-distance sprint action also boasts elite talent: the men’s 400m features Roshane Symister of Trinidad and Tobago matched up against Jamaica’s Jeremy Bembridge, Deandre Watkins, and Marcinho Rose, while the women’s 400m will see world-class sprinter Shericka Jackson compete alongside Janielle Josephs, Shian Salmon, and Sada Williams of Barbados.

LONDON — A dramatic day of English Premier League action on Saturday reshaped the race for Champions League qualification and the battle against relegation, delivering high-stakes results that sent shockwaves through the top flight.

In the headline fixture at Stamford Bridge, Matheus Cunha’s first-half finish handed Manchester United a crucial 1-0 victory over Chelsea, pushing the Red Devils to the brink of securing a spot in Europe’s elite club competition after two seasons of missing out. Under interim manager Michael Carrick, United have mounted a stunning late-season surge that has pulled them clear of their rivals for a top-four finish. Cunha slotted home a precise cross from Bruno Fernandes on the stroke of halftime, opening a commanding 10-point gap between United in third place and Chelsea, who now sit in sixth.

Chelsea, already reeling from three consecutive league defeats, could not capitalize on United’s depleted backline, which was missing key players to injury and suspension. The Blues’ fourth straight loss has now effectively ended any lingering hopes they had of qualifying for the Champions League this campaign. Post-match, Carrick praised his side’s disciplined performance against a tough opponent, noting the result was a massive milestone for the club’s season.

At the opposite end of the league table, Tottenham Hotspur’s fight for survival suffered a devastating late blow, as the north London club twice threw away a lead to draw 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion, leaving them stuck in the relegation zone. In what was new manager Roberto De Zerbi’s first home match in charge, Tottenham looked set to secure their first league win in 15 outings, only for Brighton forward Georginio Rutter to fire home a equalizer just five minutes into stoppage time.

The chaotic encounter saw Pedro Porro’s opening header canceled out by a spectacular volley from Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma in first-half added time. A stunning strike from Xavi Simons 13 minutes from full time looked to have sealed all three points for Spurs, silencing the visiting fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But the home crowd’s celebration was cut short when Jan Paul van Hecke outmuscled defender Kevin Danso to square the ball to Rutter, who blasted his shot into the top corner of the net to salvage a point for Brighton.

The draw leaves Tottenham just one point behind 17th-place West Ham United in the relegation battle, though the Hammers hold a game in hand that could extend their advantage when they visit Crystal Palace on Monday. Speaking after the match, De Zerbi remained defiant, insisting his side can still secure survival with five matches and 15 points still left to play for.

Brighton’s late equalizer also unexpectedly spared Wolverhampton Wanderers from officially dropping out of the top flight this weekend, though Wolves’ eight-year run in the Premier League appears all but over after a 3-0 away defeat to Leeds United. Fresh off their historic first away win over Manchester United at Old Trafford since 1981, Leeds have all but confirmed their own top-flight survival in their first season back after promotion. Goals from James Justin and Noah Okafor in quick succession just two minutes apart in the first half put Leeds in control, before a late stoppage-time penalty from Dominic Calvert-Lewin rounded off the win.

Leeds’ strong season defies a recent trend in the Premier League that has seen all three newly promoted clubs relegated straight back to the Championship after one season. Along with Leeds, fellow promoted side Sunderland has also impressed this campaign, while Daniel Farke’s Leeds side is still in with a chance of reaching the FA Cup final for the first time since 1973, with a semi-final clash against Chelsea scheduled for next weekend.

In another surprise result, Bournemouth piled additional pressure on under-fire Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe with a 2-1 away win at St James’ Park. The Cherries, who recently confirmed manager Andoni Iraola will leave the club at the end of the season, extended their unbeaten Premier League run to 13 matches, with goals from Marcus Tavernier and Adrien Truffert securing the three points. The result lifts Bournemouth to eighth in the table, just four points adrift of the top four Champions League places. In contrast, Newcastle remains stuck in 14th, with their own hopes of qualifying for European football next season effectively ended.

In west London’s local derby, Brentford missed the chance to overtake Chelsea into sixth place after being held to a goalless draw by neighbors Fulham. All eyes now turn to Sunday’s blockbuster title decider, where league leaders Arsenal will travel to face defending champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners hold a six-point lead at the top of the table, but Pep Guardiola’s City hold a game in hand and will have home advantage for a clash that could ultimately decide who lifts the Premier League trophy this season.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — As anticipation builds for Saturday’s make-or-break FIFA Women’s World Cup preliminary round qualifier against Guyana at Kingston’s iconic National Stadium, Jamaica’s women’s national football team, the Reggae Girlz, have announced four key adjustments to their starting 11.

Kingston, Jamaica – In a decisive final Group B qualifying match held Saturday at Kingston’s National Stadium, Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz claimed a 2-0 victory over Guyana to punch their ticket to the upcoming Concacaf W Championships, finishing their qualifying run with a perfect 12 points from four matches.

Both of Jamaica’s goals came from separate strikers in each half: veteran forward Khadija “Bunny” Shaw opened the scoring early, while second-half substitute Shania Hayles sealed the win in the game’s closing minutes. The result was all the more impressive given a standout performance from Guyana goalkeeper Arden La-rose, who recorded an incredible 15 saves throughout the 90 minutes to keep her side in the contest despite overwhelming pressure from Jamaica.

Group B final standings saw Nicaragua finish second with nine points, followed by Guyana in third with six points. Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica tied for last place, collecting just one point each in qualifying. Across the six qualifying groups, all group winners earn automatic advancement to the Concacaf W Championships, where they will join pre-qualified regional powerhouses the United States and Canada for the main tournament.

Shaw put Jamaica ahead just minutes into the first half, connecting on a corner kick delivered by Deneisha Blackwood. The forward directed a looping header toward the far left post, bouncing the ball off the turf before it ricocheted over La-rose and two Guyanese defenders to cross the goal line.

For much of the second half, Jamaica was held back by both inconsistent finishing in front of goal and a string of spectacular stops from La-rose. Hayles, who had been a starter in Jamaica’s previous match against Antigua a week prior but was dropped to the bench for Saturday’s contest, finally broke through in the 88th minute to double Jamaica’s lead. The substitute found herself unmarked in the center of the 18-yard box, and guided a left-flank cross from fellow substitute Paige Bailey cleanly past the outstretched arms of La-rose to secure the three points and the group win.

Reporting by Paul A Reid