Stefan: Well, as you may have noticed, my name is Stefan Münstedt (smiles) and I live in Kassel, in the middle of Germany. I'm 18 years old and I've been playing FIFA Soccer since FIFA 97.

In 1998 I had my first access on the 'world wide web' and joined the FIFA-community. Some months later I started to work at the German edition of 'Fifa99.net'. That site was called 'German FIFA 99 Online' which was unfortunately closed down by the incredible Nicky Roessner who had no more time to do it.

So I took over his job and had a great success with the site although - today I can confess that - I was a greenhorn. But I learned so much that I went on and developed 'German FIFA 2000 Online', 'German FIFA 2001 Online', 'German FIFA 2002 Online', and now 'German FIFA 2003 Online' - and it's getting better all the time.

The best time was 'German FIFA 99 Online', because of the spirit and the flavour, you know. Just unique. This is something that I really like ... flavour. That's very valuable.

The most successful site was, no matter what, 'German FIFA 2001 Online'. We really had an amazing success with this site. I love to remember that time by visiting the site nowadays ... and I'm still feeling the flavour of those days. That's just incredible.

Stefan: Well ... 'Fifatainment' is an incredible project that I've founded in April of this year. It's some kinda coalition of chummy sites ... of sites with common roots, you know. It all began in March 2002. That time we decided that we finally have to be independent of all these so-called "professional" hosters and partners.

So we finally did our very own thing and founded a registered association called 'Fifatainment' that unites all of our projects and is an unit that represents all of our projects as one. The society of 'Fifatainment' gets all the advertising-money from our sites and pays all the hosting-costs. Fans of our sites can join 'Fifatainment' r.a. for 30 EUR per year and support us that way. It works perfectly. I am very proud of it.

Stefan: We had some troubles with 'German FIFA 2002 Online'. We couldn't realize all the features we wanted to do for 'GFO 2002'. That's mainly the reason why 'GFO 2002' never hit the peak which was very unsatisfying. Therefore I wanted 'GFO 2003' to be something very hot, you know. We started working on the site already in June 2002.

From the beginning, I always wanted to do something that brings back the old flavour of 'GFO2k1' and 'GFO99', but parallely brings new innovations and a touch of something that has never been there before, you know.

So, we produced some stuff with different people, different colours, and different spririts with the best talents from around the world. And one of the most obvious changes is the fact that we'll have totally new colours for the site that have never been there before in this combination.

The structure of the site will be very different to the current one. Oh, and we'll have a very, very cool logo that was especially designed for that site. In the past we always had a head-graphic with the letters G-F-O, but this time we have a real hot artwork, done by a famous artist from Germany. He's really a genius. He created a brand, a label for us. I think it's really, really perfect. The best GFO ever.

But let me tell you that: The most important thing was to to save traffic. The most traffic is caused due to big graphics, big html-codes, etc. - So we did not use so many graphics on GFO 2003, more colour-codes and slender html/php-codes. So it's a very spare site inside, but it looks still perfect. It's ingenious.

Stefan: Well, to be honest, we had plans to expand our content and ideas to a bigger audience. We wanted to create an Italian and English edition of GFO. But it was not easy to find the right people and furthermore the technical requirements are currently not available for us ... all the additional servers, traffic, and so on. But I still have this vision of a big European platform for FIFA, you know. I know that one day this vision will become true and until that day I will keep this in my mind and my heart. And as long as I keep this in my heart, the vision grows and grows and it's getting more and more perfect. I always develop projects inside me, you know ... in my mind.

But actually we do not have any plans to make our websites and projects available in different languages. But we will continue trying to influence the international FIFA-fans and sites with our ideas and projects like we did in the past, with FIFA FX for example. That's something that had a big influence in the entire Fifa-world. I think Bolzer is a genius. (Dave: We all agree with you there Stefan!)

Stefan: As I told you, we finally wanted to raise on the same level like other big German gaming-sites, like CounterStrike.de, Broodwar.de, WarCraft3.de, Diablo2.de, PlanetQuake.de, etc. - these sites are the biggest for their game, but they are still bigger than GFO although GFO is the biggest for its game, too.

I think it's time to change that. So it was quite easy. I hired the people of CounterStrike.de, Broodwar.de, WarCraft3.de, and PlanetQuake.de and I told them: "I think every single of you is a genius and I want to work with you. I just want the best of the best to make this new GFO-site the best FIFA-site ever." - and they were really nice and joined me.

So I visited all of them with a pack of papers and ideas and we were sitting until deep in the night before we came over a draft that was just acceptable. Then the design was put into practice by a couple of very talented people called 'CrashDesign'. For the scripts I asked mainly people from abroad to do it. So I used to implement ideas and spirits from around the world in the site.

And to see all these people working for me, I was very honored, blessed, and happy.

Stefan: Some details from the site? Mhm ... well I decided to leave out some features that we used at GFO 2002 ... to save traffic, you know. So we abstrained from features like "Shot o'day", "Columns", or "My first match". They're just superfluously. The colours of the site, for example, will be green and black. And as I told you before, we will have a logo that is a symbol. It's not a logo, it's a symbol. We we won't have any big graphics on the site, but we will have a perfect survey and quick loading-times, and all these things that are more important than all these luxuries.

A very funny story from the development is the following. I went to Frankfurt to discuss something with the people from the webdesign. And I arrived there, and the guys ask me: "Do you have boots to play football right now?" - I said: "Not really." And they said: "We have no idea about football and FIFA. So we need to play a match to get to know what it's all about." - So we went to the next green place in the inner city of Frankfurt downtown (laughs) and played football between the buildings of the biggest banks in the world - 2 hours long. And After that ... they said: "Okay. Now we know what has to be in the design. We feel it right now." And because of this, afterwards, they had so many creative ideas. That was just amazing. And I take that moment and I never forget it again.

You know, because everything goes back to me, from conception you know to when we were sitting there and discussing, and out to see of this all things... you know the agiliation and notoriety, and it's just a work from God, it all goes through me real fast, you know it's a blessing experience to create something with different spirits. And you can take them. You can snatch them. You can feel them and you can establish something on this planet with these forces. That's really, really blessing and it gives me the power to continue to do what I do.

Stefan: I hope that FIFA 2003 will finally really rock again like FIFA 98 did it when it was released. And then hopefully more people will play this game than today. And most importantly: Good patches, active fans who create new things. In FIFA 98 and FIFA 99 there were so many people who created something new, you know. They were real pioneers.

There are still some incredible people from that time. I think Ariel Santarelli is a genius. And I love the work of Shlomy. Can I pay you this compliment? (Dave: You certainly can) Shlomy is really a valuable worker here at MRA. And Bolzer, Hedgehog, and all these creative people. They've got really a creative mind and they bring us a step forward in every minute they use their mind to think about FIFA.

But no new people are coming up. So my wishes for the community are: creativity, creativity, creativity. Like Nike's tellin' you: Just do it. And we should stop these quarrels that often times break out between fans. And this shouldn't be. A lot of people think that they are king - but the king is and remains the game, no matter what.

And an interview like this man, this allows the people to see a glimpse of what a person is really about. So we should stop these devilish things that are unfortunately present. And I will continue my drive until these evil things between fans are terminated. We should talk to each other, we should help each other ... all these 'good things' that are mentioned in every manifesto of every religion - and hey, FIFA is a religion too :) And when I work together with people from France, Italy, Germany and we enjoy our interplay of forces, in that moment, I know that this vision is possible. It's just a step that everybody has to do. I pray for it, for a flourishing community ...

That's what I really believe in.

Stefan: Yes, let me just say that: I am a very ... really big fan of yours. And what you have been doing here over at MRA, we've been feeling this for a long time, man. I mean brother I don't know if anyone's ever said THANK YOU to you for the way you put it down, for all of the spirit you gave us - especially to me -, that's still in our hearts man, I don't know if nobody ever said thank you to you man... You are really a beautiful mind with all that love and engagement that you put into your work. That's just phenomenal.

And don't forget: www.gfo2003.de is about to embark!