Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sport

( L - R ) Fuller, Essien

IT is now official. Jamaica's Reggae Boyz will break their international football drought with a friendly match on Sunday, October 14 against Ghana at the Leyton Orient football ground in London.

The Ghana Football Association announced the meeting between the teams yesterday, a decision strengthened later in the day by Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) executive treasurer Rudolph Speid, who admitted "I think the Ghana one is confirmed".

Jamaica played Ghana in May last year, also in Britain, just ahead of the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany where the Africans advanced to the second round.

Ghana, with world-class players such as Michael Essien, who plays for Chelsea, Samuel Kuffour, a former Bayern Munich player now at Marseille and Stephen Appiah - won that match 4-1.

Squad to be announced

The Jamaican squad has not been released but unlike occasions throughout the year when technical director Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic picked mainly local-based units to represent the country while he assessed talent for upcoming World Cup qualifying competition early next year, the Boyz seasoned to international competition are expected to form the core of this squad for the Ghana match.

They include North America-based Sean Fraser and Dwayne Richards, as well as European-based Ricardo Fuller, who has been in good scoring form lately while scoring the past two weekends in England, Khari Stephenson, Claude Davis, Omar Daley, Jermaine Johnson, goalkeeper Donovan Rickettes, Demar Phillips and Bolton Wanderers' Ricardo Gardner, who has captained the team when he has played.

Only last week, The Gleaner reported that the Boyz were listed to play Ghana and then their African counterparts Nigeria a few days later.

However, Speid says the Nigeria game is definitely off and the J.F.F. is now looking at the possibility of playing either Central American team Costa Rica, or regional nation Guyana, on the next FIFA friendly date in mid-October.

"Either Guyana or Costa Rica will come here to play on the 17th," he revealed.

Speid added that will be an economic decision as "...we don't want to incur any loss now", and further pointed out that any international now could cost between $7 to $10 million.