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Edwin Jones with his new Column On Football Matches in Britain for the Internet Community. Read all about it here from the experts. Round up as it was on May 6 1996.
THIS MONTH'S FOCUS ON BLACK SPORTSMEN
BLACK footballers in this country are somtimes treated appallingly. Some have been victims of racist abuse, and subject to unfair pressure. Black athletes, without whom Britain will be at the bottom of the league, have been told that the only reason they are supreme in their field is because of their "natural physical attributes." The fact that they work and train hard is ignored. The - Telegraph Online Newspaper 's Sport's Correspondent Comments
Linford Christie has been affected by apartheid-style racism in this country in a number of ways, persecuted and harassed by the Metropolitan police force, and subjected to racist sneers from the press Linford Christie has been affected by apartheid-style racism in this country in a number of ways, persecuted and harassed by the Metropolitan police force, and subjected to racist sneers from the press and a petty. Yet, despite all this, Linford Christie has refused to give way to racism in reverse.
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Airline Scrooges and Adidas
queer the pitch for Paralympic Greatsby The Disability Telegraphs Sports Correspondent
OLYMPIC sporstmen are the pampered of the sporting earth. Not so the equally enthusiastic, able and patriotic Paralympains. Robert Govender reports on the rawest of raw sporting deals
BRITAIN, a declining sports nation, derives much comfort from the excellent performances of its individual and team performers in international athletics.
Sadly, however, despite the glory they bring to Britannia, they get the credit with very little cash. With the approach of the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, they are in a familiar financial predicament.
For the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, British Airways picked up the bill for Paralympic squad flights, but not for that of the Olympic team. Delta Airlines, on the other hand, have been providing the British Olympic Association with about 1,200 complimentarty flights since 1992.
To compete for their country in Atlanta, Paralympic athletes will have to dig deep into their limited budgets to pay for their own flights. It is a scandalous state of affairs.
There is also intense dissatisfaction over the cost of team kit. The hugely rich Adidas company has agreed to donate the Olympic team kit free. This normally costs about £800 an athlete.
While the Paralympic squad will also wear Adidas kit, the British Paralympic Association will pay the fat German company Adidas for their products, and will not get a sponsorship fee. Adidas highly selective commercial conscience has come in for some critical examination lately. They have been exposed as the champions of cheap labour in the Far East - they actually pay their labourers there the princely sum of 10p an hour for making shoes which sell at over £100 per pair on the free narket!
Other Scrooges have been excessively generous to the better off and mean to the less well off - in contrast to the Olympians, disabled athletes have to pay a Games entry fee.
The BPA hope to send 260 competitors to Atlanta and will also have to find the money for a medical support staff of over a hundred.
The BOA will have little difficulty raising over £10m for their 350-strong squad.
But its a very harsh world for the the BPA, which has been struggling from 1992 to raise £2m. for their expenditure for the games.
To date they have garnered £1m. This is going to have an adverse effect on their training programme and may even result in a smaller team, a crushing blow for many able, enthusiastic, and needless to say patritotic athletes.
Great Britain's top sportsmen and women are suffering from an acute attack of Georgia fever. The Paralympic Games in Atlanta will be the focus of much media attention, particularly because of the phenomenal successes of the national team.
There were spectacular successes: Great Britain's men's wheelchair basketball team captured the European title, their first major triumph since the 1970s, automatic qualification for Atlanta and confirmation of their status as main contenders to the US this year. In May, Oldham Elves, who head the National League, won the Andre vergauen Cup - wheelchair basketball's version of the UEFA Cup.
The Great Britain swimming squad remain a dominant world force. After bagging the World Championship in Malta in 1994, they effortlessly took the European Championship in Perpignan in September, 1994.
Noel Thatcher is a very special kind of athlete. The visually impaired Paralympian from Harlow, Essex, clipped two minutes off his own world record for the 10,000 metres, clocking 31 mm 40.51 sec. Thatcher is going for three golds - at 5,000 metres, 10,000m and marathon.
He is widely expected to achieve his ambitions.
There are other heroes, too, like partially sighted judo fighter Simon Jackson, who maintains an unbeaten seven- year record in the top competitions.
At the Special Olympics 1995 in New Haven, in the United States, Susan Pipes eclipsed American and Russian counterparts, sweeping the board with five gold medals. She took the overall title in class one - the top eight gymnasts - which effectively earned her the unofficial title as the world's No 1 in special needs gymnastics.
Overall, the United Kingdom Special Olympics squad finished with 53 gold medals, 55 silver and 58 bronze. While 22 gold medals were won in gymnastic events, the powerlifters added a further nine.
On the tennis court, Janet McMorran had an outstanding year, winning two singles and a doubles title (in the US Open), which took her to No 8 in the women's world rankings.
However, the year's 'champagne moment' came from Graham Salmon, a blind golfer, whose hole-in-one on the final day of the English Blind Golf Open Championships stole the show. Salmon, 44, found the pin to perfection on the seventh hole, 124 yards and par three, with his five-iron.