Sven Goran Eriksson's bid to delay the deadline for naming his World Cup squad has failed.

Eriksson and other European coaches wanted FIFA to put the deadline back from May 15 until June 5. They made their case at a workshop in Dusseldorf yesterday but the idea was rejected by the World Cup organising committee.

FIFA insist all countries must submit their 23-man squads by May 15, as originally stated.

This date is before the Champions League final and England's final two warm-up games against Hungary and Jamaica.

FIFA's World Cup organising committee, chaired by vice-president Lennart Johansson, claim the decision has been made to allow those players going to the finals to rest from club football.

This is less important in England and western Europe, where most football seasons are about to end.

But, in the rest of the world, clubs may use the delayed deadline to keep players involved in domestic games until the week before the World Cup finals, which start on June 9.

Players who are named in the squad submitted on May 15 and then injured before the tournament starts can be replaced if they satisfy FIFA-approved doctors that they have a genuine problem.

A FIFA statement read: ''The 32 participating associations at the 2006 World Cup will be obliged to submit their list of 23 players by May 15 at the very latest.

''This course of action is intended to afford the players concerned adequate recovery time, although injured players may be replaced after this date following a specific procedure.''

FIFA were also worried that countries would be tempted to name a bigger squad at the start of May, taking all those players out of club football, before trimming it to 23 and sending the rejected players back to their clubs.

The statement added: ''Granting a larger squad and a later deadline for the definitive list of players would mean any players who were not then taken into account would be missing from their clubs.''

The organising committee also decided that all players, team officials, referees and match officials must sign a declaration promising not to take part in any kind of betting connected to the World Cup.

FIFA's decision to reject the request to delay the squad deadline had the backing of several other heavyweight nations.