SAO PAULO: Just in time for Saturday’s draw for next year’s Confederations Cup, Brazil will have a new national team manager – Luiz Felipe Scolari who was the last boss to guide them to World Cup glory back in 2002 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
Scolari, out of work since being sacked in the summer by Palmeiras, was understood to have agreed terms with CBF president Jose Maria Marin today/Wednesday in expectation of being paraded before the media tomorrow/Thursday.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who managed Brazil to victory in the United States in 1994, is expected to be national teams co-ordinator.
After Marin’s dismissal last week of Mano Menezes it had been suggested that the CBF would wait until January before naming the new man. However it then appears to have struck Marin and senior vice-president Marco Polo Del Nero that this would severe embarrassment when FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the international media hit town at the weekend.
Hence the sudden haste to seal a deal with Scolari after speculation even that the CBF might have considered trying to attract Pep Guardiola, ex-boss of Barcelona and currently on a year’s sabbatical in New York.
As reported by KeirRadnedge.com at the start of November, one of the last straws for the CBF was the open criticism of Menezes by Joao Havelange, former president of FIFA and the Brazilian federation and whose opinion and influence – whatever his links to the ISL scandal – still carry enormous weight.
[MORE LATER]