Scolari leaves decision on future to federation

Brazil coach defends team, his own track record after side’s loss.

BRASILIA: Luiz Felipe Scolari has left the decision on his future as coach of Brazil to the country’s federation after the World Cup hosts’ campaign ended in more disappointment.

“It is up to the president to decide,” said Scolari after Brazil’s loss to the Netherlands.

“We will hand in a final report and then leave it to him to analyse what needs to be done.

“I’m not going to discuss [my future] with you.”

Scolari’s contract with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) expires with the end of Brazil’s campaign, but there have been suggestions that president Jose Maria Marin could persuade him to stay on until the end of the year while a long-term replacement is sought.

“At the end of the tournament, we were not so good, but we finished fourth and we must praise the players. The game [against Holland] was very even, but we conceded a goal early on and the Netherlands got their break.”

The home players were loudly jeered as they made their way off the field having become the first Brazil team to lose successive home games for 74 years.

But Scolari claimed that Brazil’s campaign was about more than a first-half collapse against the Germans in the semi-finals and continued to insist that his players deserve more merit for their victory in last year’s Confederations Cup.

“There were really good moments in games. We can only lament a six-minute spell against Germany, but it happened and I can’t criticise the team. This group was very good at the Confederations Cup. They have good quality and the road is open to create a much better team in 2018 [at the next World Cup in Russia].”

And Scolari defended his own track record, pointing to his past successes as coach of the Brazil team that won the World Cup in 2002 and of the Portugal team that also finished fourth in 2006. “I have been in three World Cups, two with Brazil and one with Portugal, and in all of them I have got to the semi-finals,” he said.

“Sometimes in football things can happen in the space of a couple of minutes that change everything.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2014.

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