Getting on the nerves

The Confederations Cup is hopefully a thick-skinned individual for if not it is likely to be feeling a little sore after all the insults hurled at it over the past year.

France's World Cup winning captain Didier Deschamps has attacked the competition which starts in France on Wednesday as an "aberration" on an already creaking fixture list.

Europe's key clubs have all dismissed it as "superfluous".

Deschamps' main gripe is that the Confederations Cup places an unnecessary extra burden on players' fitness.

The Monaco coach said: "This Confederations Cup is an aberration. It's an event which attacks the physical integrity of players, they won't have time to recover.

"We (the French league) start on August 2, France get together on June 11, and we finish the season on May 24: that doesn't leave a lot of time to recuperate."

Deschamps' comments mirror the opinion from the G14 group of Europe's top teams.

G14 director general Thomas Kurth explained: "We're opposed to this competition. We've tried to be conciliatory, constructive, to find a solution. Otherwise we'll have to scale down competitions across the board."

He added: "Clubs are lending their players, but they don't get anything in return.

"Do the sums yourself - a major player costs his club between 4,000 and 5,000 euros a day."

Even France coach Jacques Santini got in on the act, urging FIFA last year to come up with new dates to better fit in with the congested European fixture list.

"We must find a different format. Couldn't we find different dates, or even change the format completely with fewer teams?" he asked.

And France international Robert Pires of Arsenal reflected: "Even if we didn't want to take part in this competition before everyone's motivated now."

Bowing to pressure, FIFA agreed that top European clubs would not have to automatically release all their international players.

Thus French duo Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele and Brazilian World Cup winners Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos will all be noticeable by their absence in the June 18 to 29 event as they remain on club duty to help Real Madrid's push for the Spanish league title.

Similarly Real's arch rivals for the championship Real Sociedad are holding on to their Turkish pair Nihat Kahveci and Tayfun Korkut until June 22, the final day of the Spanish season. Tayfun has meanwhile signed for Espanyol next season.

The job of defending the much-maligned tournament fell to former French World Cup great and current FIFA vice-president Michel Platini.

"This event was set up by FIFA in answer to a request by confederations who rarely have the opportunity to play against the strongest countries in an official tournament," he said.