More than one camp fire

WORLD CUP 2002: Roy Keane is not the only would-be World Cup player unhappy with his squad's preparation. Brazil's Edmilson yesterday launched a furious attack on the arrangements for the four-time winners as they prepared for a controversial friendly against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

"The pitches are shit, the balls are shit, everything is shit around here," the Lyon midfielder said. "I have no idea why we came here. Some players are feeling knee pains, others in the ankle. It's really hard. Personally, I have an ankle injury."

Some believe the reason they are there is that the Brazilian football federation (CBF) stands to earn around £700,000 from the game, but the players are unhappy with the poor facilities and blame them for the number of squad injuries.

Luiz Felipe Scolari's men have switched bases four times during their stay due to the condition of the pitches.

The CBF has come under fire on more than one occasion in the past for putting its financial needs before those of the players, having been criticised in particular for setting up meaningless friendlies as promotional ventures in conjunction with Nike.

The France players will each receive a bonus of £200,000 if they clinch their second consecutive World Cup on June 30th. They will get £130,000 if they lose in the final and nothing if they fail to qualify from the group phase.

The deal represents a 35 per cent increase on their reward for winning the tournament in 1998.

Argentina's striker Claudio Caniggia is expected to be fit to play within three days, having recovered from the knee injury he picked up while playing for Rangers in their Scottish Cup final win over Celtic.

Doctors had thought it would rule him out of the World Cup, but Argentina's coach Marcelo Bielsa said yesterday: "The team is evolving in a favourable fashion. The two players - Caniggia and Matias Almeyda - who are not yet fully fit will have totally recovered in three days' time."

Caniggia is, nevertheless, unlikely to make Argentina's starting line-up, but with Bielsa's rigid tactical line-up it seems inevitable that one of the world's top strikers, either Lazio's Hernan Crespo or Roma's Gabriel Batistuta, will miss out as well.

Batistuta, the national team's record goalscorer, hit the net four times in the second half of a warm-up game against the J-League's Kashima Antlers on Thursday, while Crespo drew a blank, but Bielsa declined to speculate on who will line-up against Nigeria on June 2nd.

"It's very hard to decide," he said. "Both played successfully, and they're in excellent condition. I'm trying to find that last piece of information to help me decide which is the best option and I hope not to make a mistake."

Whatever happens, they are unlikely to play together, as Bielsa favours a lone striker with two wide men, rather than two front men in tandem or one slightly withdrawn. "Neither of those options pleases me," he said.

Ecuador's veteran midfielder Alex Aguinaga has criticised the squad's attitude following a 1-0 warm-up defeat against Senegal.

With the South American nation making its first appearance in the finals, Aguinaga said the team was not learning quickly enough.

"We were too prudish, like thinking that we're still far from the World Cup. I think we should take this sort of match more seriously," he said.

Ecuador have lost three out of their past five friendlies in the build-up to the finals as they prepare for their opening group match against Italy.