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Search: 'Luiz Felipe Scolari'
Stories
An anti-climatic exit, injured star player and end of an era – the next World Cup hosts need to improve. Robert Shaw explains
Brazilians don’t anticipate winning every World Cup. But they do at least expect to bask in their technical superiority until a defensive howler denies the assumed divine right to be world champions. Frustration at losing to Holland – opponents overcome in 1994 and 1998 – was compounded by the sense that the Dutch posed the biggest hurdle to Brazil’s fourth final appearance in five World Cups.
Gunther Simmermacher explains how the pressures of hosting a World Cup may be getting to South Africa
Even by the standards of South African football, the appointment of Brazilian coach Joel Santana to lead the national team, Bafana Bafana, at the 2010 World Cup was an eccentric decision. In April 2008 Carlos Alberto Parreira, the 1994 World Cup-winning coach, quit as South Africa coach to be with his ailing wife. South African Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant asked him to recommend a successor. Parreira suggested Santana, then at Flamengo.
Chelsea sack Scolari after only eight months in charge
The sacking of Phil Scolari shocked the press, who reacted with widespread criticism of Chelsea’s actions. The 30th managerial casualty of the season had only been given 36 games and he was an internationally famous name with a 56 per cent win rate. Within a few days however the mood had changed. The club’s hierarchy was still attacked in opinion columns but there was also plenty of space given over to justification for Scolari’s departure. Indeed the papers were suddenly filled to bursting with leaked information bulked out by psychological conjecture and conspiracy theory.
Carlos Queiroz's move home from Manchester United has not gone well. Phil Town reports on a national team suddenly in crisis
Despite a series of nearly-got-theres during five years as Portugal coach, by the summer of 2008 Luiz Felipe Scolari had overstayed his welcome and wanted out to lusher pastures. Perhaps seduced by his two successive World Cup wins at Under-20 level (1989 and ’91) and by his association with Manchester United’s successes in recent years, but apparently ignoring his indifferent previous spell as national coach (ten wins from 23 games between 1991 and ’93), the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) put their faith in the Mozambique-born Carlos Queiroz, at the time a popular choice.