Arsene Wenger has renewed his war of words with France's football federation after Arsenal's bid for a domestic double was harmed by the potential loss of Sylvain Wiltord for the rest of the season.

The Arsenal boss has already clashed with France coach Roger Lemerre for taking his team to Chile and Australia for friendlies earlier this season.

Now he has attacked Lemerre's all-out strategy in this week's friendly against Russia, while expressing frustration at the loss of in-form Wiltord in training.

Wenger will also hardly endear himself to his compatriots by offering to give guidance to England ahead of the World Cup, while insisting Alex Ferguson is wrong to write off Sven-Goran Eriksson's side.

Wiltord could miss the rest of the domestic season - just like Robert Pires, who is due to have an operation on his knee injury, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

"It's much worse for Sylvain than the French Football Federation came out with initially," Wenger complained. "He has done his hamstring and will be out for about 21 days.

"I don't think friendlies should be played at this stage of the season when all the big clubs are fighting for trophies. Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni handled it very well as they changed 11 players.

France boss Roger Lemerre nevertheless made Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, as well as Chelsea's Marcel Desailly, play the full 90 minutes on Wednesday night. "I can't explain that. I don't want to try to understand. The France national team is untouchable and no one can say anything. Everything they do is right, even when it's wrong."

Meanwhile, Wiltord's club and international team-mate Pires has opted to go under the knife rather than risk further injury setbacks.

Pires injured his cruciate knee ligament during Arsenal's 3-0 win over Newcastle on March 23th.

The 28-year-old has chosen to go for an operation after meeting with sports injury specialist Jean Pierre Franceschi in Marseille yesterday.

Sunderland manager Peter Reid agrees with Wenger and is urging FIFA to introduce a compensation scheme for players injured while on international duty.

The Black Cats boss has lost Jason McAteer for today's crucial match with West Ham at Upton Park after the Republic of Ireland international was sent home when preparing for the midweek friendly against the USA.

"It's difficult when you send lads away on international football and they come back injured," said Reid.

"And that's not having a go at Mick McCarthy, because he has been brilliant. But I think there has to be some compensation sorted out."

Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein has set his sights on ensuring the name of the Gunners' new sponsors - O2 - would be the year that the club won the domestic double after concluding a club-record deal.

The four-year contract is reportedly worth more than £10 million, with an option for a further two years and shared profits from a joint venture.

However, Fulham's reported £2 million-a-year backers Pizza Hut yesterday axed their sponsorship of the Premiership strugglers amid claims the company felt exposure gained from the deal did not merit their huge investment.

Last July, the Division One champions trumpeted the tie-up with the restaurant chain as a sign of their pulling power.

FIFA's internal war took a sinister turn yesterday when its general secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, said that he would not be travelling to a meeting of one of its confederations because he received physical threats.

Zen-Ruffinen, who in the past few days has launched a stinging attack on some FIFA officials, including the president Sepp Blatter, was supposed to arrive in Miami today for the Concacaf congress.

However, he said: "I was 'advised' to stay at home. I received physical threats. If I had gone today I would have made sure I was well protected, with bodyguards."

Financially crippled pay-TV firm ITV Digital are staring into the abyss after a meeting with its biggest and most hostile creditor, the English Football League, made no progress.

The desperate drying-up of funds which the ITV Digital crisis threatens has brought Watford to the brink of sacking their manager, Gianluca Vialli, after a season of heavy expenditure and disappointing results.

The front-runners to replace Vialli are Joe Kinnear, who has just won promotion from the third division with Luton Town, and Ian Holloway who is at second division QPR.

Derby vice chairman Peter Gadsby and director John Kirkland have resigned as directors of the club.