For Jamaicans who routinely spend hours every week in front of their television sets watching football in England and wider Europe there is a punctuation mark of sorts this Saturday.

Huge favourites Real Madrid of Spain meet Borussia Dortmund of Germany in the UEFA Champions League final at London’s famous Wembley Stadium. This will formally signal the end of the European club season for 2023/24.

Such is the pull of, and profit from televised European football, the pause after today’s grand event won’t be long.

In two weeks, the UEFA European Championship 2024 will begin in Germany. Inevitably, top European teams will have thoughts about the FIFA World Cup set for two years’ time in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Closer to home, on June 20, top Concacaf teams, including Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, will join their traditionally far more powerful South American neighbours in the Copa America.

Ahead of those two mega spectacles, Jamaicans will be paying keen attention to their Reggae Girlz who face hosts Brazil today in the first of two matches in that South American country. This will be the first test for Head Coach Mr Hubert Busby since returning to the fold recently.

And next Thursday, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, without a number of their top overseas-based professionals, face the Dominican Republic in the opening game of the qualifying campaign towards the 2026 World Cup. Three days later, the Jamaicans will travel to Dominica in the eastern Caribbean for their second qualifier. The betting will be on Jamaica to win both games, but players, coaches, back room staff and the Jamaica Football Federation will be acutely aware that in sport, the metaphorical banana peel awaits.

Away from football, many will be watching Racers Grand Prix at the National Stadium this evening.

With Jamaica’s athletics championships now less than a month away, ahead of the Paris Olympic Games in late July, the form of those Jamaicans on show will be under intense scrutiny.

The men’s 100 metres including US star Mr Noah Lyles and potential challengers Jamaican Mr Oblique Seville, Britain’s Mr Zharnel Hughes and Kenya’s Mr Ferdinand Omanyala will be a must see. We note Mr Lyles has said he is aiming to break the National Stadium record of 9.75 seconds set by Mr Yohan Blake in 2012.

Also, of course, there is the ICC Cricket Men’s Twenty20 World Cup hosted by the West Indies and the USA. That starts tonight with the Americans facing Canada in Texas and ending with the final in Barbados on June 29.

The West Indies, with visions of a third global T20 title, will begin their campaign on Sunday against Papua New Guinea at Providence Stadium in Guyana.

The Caribbean men are drawn alongside New Zealand, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda in the first round.

Stirring performances — based on an admirably fearless approach — in victories over South Africa and an under-manned Australia in the build-up to this tournament have given Caribbean fans real hope. But all should recognise the danger posed, in particular, by Afghanistan and New Zealand.

Experts are predicting even hotter conditions than usual this June and in the summer months to follow. That’s clearly more reason for Jamaicans to stay inside watching mouth-watering televised sport.