Soccer
Scolari named Brazil coach
2012-11-29 15:17
Luiz Felipe Scolari (AFP)
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Sao Paulo - Brazil on Thursday officially
announced Luiz Felipe Scolari as their coach to lead them through to the
2014 World Cup finals on home soil, replacing Mano Menezes, who was sacked last
week.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) named 2002 World
Cup winner Scolari for a second spell at the helm as he targets a sixth
world title with the auriverde in 18 months time, using next year's
Confederations Cup, also in Brazil, as a springboard.
Carlos
Alberto Parreira, who managed Brazil's successful 1994 World Cup
campaign in the United States, will serve as Scolari's technical
assistant.
"Our sole commitment is to seek out and offer the best
for our football and it is in this vein that we have chosen these two
great champions, respected not just in our country but worldwide -
Felipe Scolari and Carlos Alberto Parreira," CBF president Jose Maria
Marin told a news conference.
Marin had coyly avoided naming
Scolari on Wednesday even as the media plastered the image of the
64-year-old all over newspaper front pages, while saying the CBF wanted
"someone who can face up to the pressure of the post."
That
pressure - and inveterate impatience at the CBF to say nothing of
demanding fans - ensured Menezes was a dead man walking after Brazil
lost the chance to end their Olympic gold medal duck in losing the
London Games final to Mexico.
Scolari is available after recently parting company with Palmeiras last September - the team were later relegated.
The decision to bring him back has sparked differing responses from ex-stars, including Zico and Carlos Alberto.
Zico, who on Wednesday resigned as coach of the Iraqi national team blaming a dispute over his contract, favoured the move.
He
said before the official announcement: "Felipao (Scolari) has won so
many titles he has to be respected - and the two of them together have
international experience and competence so I can only wish them luck."
Former
skipper Carlos Alberto, who lifted the 1970 World Cup after starring in
the Pele-inspired 4-1 thrashing of Italy, struck a note of discord,
however.
"I don't know that this is Felipao's moment. He won in 2002 - but that was 2002! This year he bombed out at Palmeiras."
The
CBF sacked Mano Menezes last week after just two years in the job, with
the Selecao having lost in the quarter-finals of last year's Copa
America before the Olympic disappointment.
The five-times world
champions are eager that the new man should use the Confederations Cup
to blood new stars ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
In his first stint
as Brazil manager, Scolari was forgiven for a pale Confederations Cup
showing in 2001 after he led the Selecao to the World Cup win in Japan
the following year.
He later coached Portugal and led them to the final of Euro 2004 on home soil before a disastrous spell with Chelsea in 2008.
Despite former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola being linked with the job, Marin said he wanted a Brazilian.
"We
won five (world) titles with them. That's why it would be very
difficult to call in a foreigner," A Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted
Marin as saying on Tuesday.
Parreira insisted earlier in the week
that everyone should get behind Scolari, telling Brazilian media: "It's
time to put other problems aside and focus on winning the World Cup."
Those
"other problems" include in-fighting at the CBF, where Marin and former
selections chief Andres Sanchez were in open conflict after the latter
said the organisation was wrong to sack Menezes.
The Folha de Sao
Paulo daily on Wednesday said a "Cold War" had descended on the
organisation before Sanchez, angry to have been left out of the loop
both on the Menezes' dismissal and the decision to re-appoint Scolari,
quit his post.