Wolfsburg's managing director Dieter Hoeness was shocked that German national team manager Joachim Low included no Wolfsburg players in his provisional World Cup squad. There was absolutely no sign of this coming," said Hoeness to assembled media."[Christian Gentner and Marcel Schafer] have always been called up and were even part of the recent fitness tests. They both have great team capabilities and therefore they would be ideal players for such a tournament."

Dieter Hoeness' brother, Uli, is president of Bayern Muenchen. Wolfsburg won last year's title; Bayern will clinch this year's trophy on Saturday. Uli goaded his little brother a bit on Thursday about the selections. Bayern had seven players chosen, but Uli piled on.  "If you include Toni Kroos, who returns to Bayern after a loan spell with Leverkusen in the summer, then it is actually eight," Uli told the newspaper Tz. "And Michael Ballack is a former player of ours so it is practically nine - that is almost a full team," he added.

We'll see similar dramas soon in Holland and Spain. There's a great rivalry in Holland between Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord as to which club places more current and past players in the squad. In Spain the debate is between Real Madrid and Barcelona, but those clubs' biggest stars will be lining up for other countries and not for European champions Spain.

The whole debate is a little curious—not for the supporters or the players, but for the backroom and boardroom figures like the Hoeness brothers who suddenly speak up. Every club executive wants his players at the World Cup: it increases the players' marketability and transfer value. On the other hand, somewhat hypocritically, nobody wants to release players for qualification games and friendlies lest the players get injured. National team managers use those qualification games and friendlies to pick the World Cup team, so it's a little frustrating that club management wants to have it both ways.