In an attempt to keep Germany's players focused for the World Cup Finals, all activities which are unrelated to the team's preparation efforts are to be banned. This practice has also been used in previous tournaments and prevents players from getting employed by newspapers and media organisations or from posting a personal diary (blog) on the Internet.

Oliver Bierhoff, the German Team Manager, said to the German Football Federation website that "We can imagine players would like to profit from writing diaries during the World Cup. We have decided to set a firm line that there should be no agreements for other responsibilities and that concentration should be fully focused on the sporting side."

"From May 15, 2006, and during the entire World Cup no players will be authorized to write columns for newspapers or be involved in commercial activities on the Internet. We've decided to be clear on the issue: before and during the competition we have to be fully concentrated on the results of the team and nothing else."

The Federation's ban will be in effect from the 15th of May, approximately 4 weeks before the June 9th kick-off. Striker Kevin Kuranyi had already made a deal with Microsoft's new World Cup related website to have his personal blog featured there, according to the Federation's website, and his agent has been informed of the decision.

Bierhoff advised the players in the German Squad to reject an invitation to play in a charity "Match Against Poverty" game to take place on the 22nd of December, stressing the tough schedule they had since the 2005 Confederations Cup began.

The match will feature one team managed by Brazilian star Ronaldo, and another by French 'Galactico' midfielder Zinedine Zidane. However the organisers of the event have confirmed that Andreas Hinkel, Bernd Schneider and Lukas Podolski will play.

Next year's World Football tournament is expected to have greater audiences across the globe than the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and media battles for a piece of the pie are intensifying. Media reports suggest that up to 7 players have signed contracts with Internet and content providers.

The official website of the tournament hosted by Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft's recent launch of a website dedicated to the World Cup Tournament have intensified the wars for domination of the tournament's online coverage.

WorldCupLatest.com has been getting very positive feedback, and is quickly gaining a reputation for being one of the most up-to date sports sites on the web. There are constant developments happening on the site, with our aim of supplying the most up to date, informative information, straight to your desktop!

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