Found this in the respected German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) today. AN EXCELLENT SOCCER EVENT TO TAKE IT OFF THE SCHEDULE For the ones it is the Confederations Cup, for the others the most superfluous competition of the world. Also after eleven years, the tournament that starts today with the hammer game Japan vs New Zealand, still remains a bastard of the ball, a child nobody really wants to have. “This competition won’t last”, said UEFA President Lennart Johansson last fall and announced that after Germany 05 UEFA won’t take part with their continental champion anymore. His rival, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who wanted to lower the power of UEFA and the European clubs by introducing the Confederations Cup, described the effect of the refusal in the French paper ‘Figaro’ this week: “After Germany 2005 the competition will most likely be held every four years only.” The competition of the continental champions, which started as ‘Intercontinental Championship’ in Saudi Arabia 1992 and did not get better as ‘Intercontinental Cup’ in 1995, will only survive as rest parcel – a general check for the WC as 2001 in Korea and 2005 in Germany. Neither market nor schedule allow more than this minimum solution. Due to lacking stars, the current event with 16 games in 12 days won’t rescue the competition. The image is about the same of the UI Cup on club level – with the difference that the UI Cup at least rewards with a spot in a better competition. The winner of the final in Paris will only have reached that the vacation until the training start got less than two weeks. No wonder that those don’t come, who don’t have to come. The ones who have to come are the champions of the six associations – France, Japan, New Zealand, Cameroon, Colombia, USA – and World Champion Brazil. For the last spot not only Germany, that suffered embarrassing losses in the only participation in Mexico 1999 under Erich Ribbeck (0:4 vs Brazil, 0:2 vs USA), denied. Also Italy and Spain refused until Turkey finally joined as eighth team. But also the ones who will come, will have problems to deliver the hoped summer show. Not participating for France: Zidane, Makelele, Vieira, Trezeguet; for Brazil: Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Rivaldo, Gilberto Silva; for Turkey: Hakan Sükür, Emre, Okan, Tugay; for Japan: Ono, Nakata. Even the Americans left some at home due to a running club season. And Colombia comes without the players from the cocaine-centers Cali and Medellin – not due to unexpected police controls, but as both clubs still play in the South American cup competition. Almost all stars are either occupied as in the Spanish league, or injured, or not interested, or tired after two years of soccer non-stop. The biggest Brazilian star will be Zico – the Coach of the Japanese is under pressure after just five goals in seven games and now has to take this superfluous event seriously. Similar as Brazilian NT Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who next to the European stars could not nominate those of the Brazilian champion FC Santos. Association boss Teixeira guaranteed him that his fate does not depend on this competition. But those promises don’t last long in the country of soccer passion. At the last Confederations Cup Brazil had appearances without goals against Japan and Canada and a 0:1 against Australia. When checking in at the airport, Coach Emerson Leao got to know that he was fired. Luckily there are at least some, who look forward to playing this competition – e.g. Winfried Schäfer, the only German at the Confederations Cup. With Africa Champion Cameroon he has - next to New Zealand – the only team with the best formation available. The big player of the tournament is Thierry Henry, who happily agreed to come despite of his club Coach Arsene Wenger being one of the main critics of this competition. “I’m playing when my country calls”, says the world-class forward, who wants to add four games to his 63 of this season. His motto will be popular for fans and officials, but won’t find applause among his colleagues: “I am pro, I am young and I am earning tons of money. After the retirement there’s a lot of time to rest.” Or after the Confederations Cup retires.
Here's the original article ... http://www.faz.net/s/RubFB1F9CD5313...D38C363AE35F92BB7D~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html Did you do the translation? If so then thanks for taking the time. Is that the right translation - "hammer game"? I thought it was more like "sensation" but, really, my German isn't that great. From the tone of the article as a whole I'm quite certain the use of sensation in that context would have to be quite sarcastic.