It’s time to see if Iceland can secure a place in the World Cup. Having come back from the dead to make the playoffs, it’s the Swiss who stand in their way. They’re just so neutral…

I can recap the last post in two screen caps. I’ve taken Iceland from here:

To here: 

It’s a big welcome back to Jack McInroy, who is here to have another go at World Cup 98. It’s Iceland this time and whilst Jamaica already had qualification sewn up, Iceland have a lot to do…

16th July 1997. Day One of CM 97/98. A blank slate. Everyone on 0 games played 0 points. Your rivals might have better players and more money, but your fate in your own hands. 

Not so with World Cup qualification. We come in two thirds of the way into the qualifying campaign for the 98 World Cup. A point separates England and Italy in group 2. One will qualify automatically, the other will head to a playoff. Spain have already qualified. Wales and Northern Ireland are already out of it. 

Iceland were genuine minnows back then, but the game’s Noric bias makes them an appealing team to take charge of. One look at the group 8 table is enough to convince anyone that the first chance of tournament football is 3 years away with the European Championship. 

We re-join Jack as he ponders his final selections for France 98. Jamaica don’t have the biggest talent pool but the aim remains to get out of the group stage. Catch up with part 1 here.

I have to call-up a minimum of 22 players for my World Cup squad. I decide to call up all 23 and I take some encouragement from the fact that Barry Hayles has had a big money move to the Premier League. 

Please give a big CM9798 welcome to our latest guest blogger as Jack McInroy has stepped into the Jamaica hot seat. Can he inspire the Reggae Boyz to World Cup glory…or at least further than their real life escapades?

In 1998, Jamaica qualified for the World Cup for the first (and so far only) time. I was at school at the time, and a friend, who was mixed race and knew my grandad was Jamaican, asked me who I’d support if the Reggae Boyz met England in the second round. England, I said, without hesitation. Just two years early I had cried my eyes out when we exited Euro 96, and though I was also rooting for Jamaica and Scotland, my heart was with England. 

The meeting never happened. Jamaica went out in the group stage and England met an Argentina side that had beaten them 5-0. Generally in CM 97/98 it goes the same way – they might win a game, but they always go out in the first round. 

But this is a chance to do it all over again. Can I cause the greatest shock in World Cup history and take the Reggae Boyz to glory? And can I make up for my split loyalties?