MEXICO CITY, JULY 21: France declined to play because they were not interested, reigning champions Brazil and Germany have left many stars at home and hosts Mexico even threatened to boycott the fourth edition of the Fifa Confederations Cup which kicks off on Saturday.By the official Fifa deadline last week, only three of the eight teams playing at the July 24-August 4 tournament had notified the world governing body of their 20-team squad.Their first opponents are Germany, who are fielding only three players per Bundesliga team after the clubs' fierce protest against the event which ends just 10 days before the start of league action.There are fears that the team will suffer a similar humiliation than the 3-0 defeat in the US in February, but coach Erich Ribbeck insisted, ``I am sick of all the complaining.''``We should be happy that we can test players under competitive conditions,'' said Ribbeck, whose team is led by 38-year-old and 136-times capped Lothar Matthaeus.Despite the absence of many stars the four times World Cup winners Brazil and reigning European champions Germany are still favored to top the group. The US are a dark horse while New Zealand are not expected to make the semis.One of the top Group A spots should belong to Mexico - their players gave up their boycott threat made in protest of two teammates banned for drug abuse at the Copa - but Bolivia will have a hard time against the African champions Egypt and the Saudis.
