Scolari set for England job
Luiz Felipe Scolari is set to be appointed as the next England manager if he can agree terms with the Football Association but an announcement is unlikely before next week.
The appointment needs to be ratified by the FA board and although they could hold an emergency conference call, the matter is expected to be dealt with at the scheduled meeting next Thursday.
FA chief executive Brian Barwick returned from Lisbon today and confirmed he had held talks with the 57-year-old Brazilian.
Barwick said: “I think it is well-evidenced now that we were in Lisbon, speaking to Felipe Scolari, as part of the process of recruiting the next coach and that process continues.”
Barwick was given permission to speak to Scolari in March after FA chairman Geoff Thompson contacted his opposite number in the Portuguese football federation Gilberto Madail.
Scolari is under contract as Portugal coach until after the World Cup and reports in that country suggested he still has yet to agree matters such as salary and the timing of his appointment.
The news of Barwick’s approach has led to a storm of criticism aimed at the FA for turning to a foreign coach once more.
Howard Wilkinson, who was FA technical director at the time of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s appointment in 2000, believes football chiefs have gone back on their intentions at the time.
Wilkinson, who is also chairman of the League Managers’ Association, told PA Sport: “At the time Sven was appointed it was very much seen as a necessity to have a foreign coach, with the intention that the next appointment would be, could be and should be someone who had come through the system in this country.
“I am concerned about the effect appointing Scolari will have on English football at playing and coaching level.
“We don’t have a problem with Scolari, he has good credentials and a good CV. We are not being xenophobic.”
He added: “It’s about the best interests of English football for the next 10 to 15 years.
“I am very confident that any of the English candidates could take this current crop of England players through a successful World Cup and the European Championships in two years’ time.
“They would very quickly come to terms with the job because the modern brand of English coach is quite capable of holding the top job in English football. What they need is an opportunity. The FA has a responsibility primarily to English players and English coaches.”
Scolari’s impending appointment is an especially bitter blow to Middlesbrough’s Steve McClaren, who as Eriksson’s assistant has close connections with the FA and had been led to believe unofficially that he was the front-runner last week.
One potentially-damaging side-effect is that McClaren will have to go to the World Cup and play an important part in the England set-up but in the knowledge that he has not got the call to step up to the head coach’s job once the tournament is over.
Martin O’Neill was the early favourite, but he appears to have paid the price for his loyalty to his coaching staff while Bolton manager Sam Allardyce and Charlton’s Alan Curbishley were viewed as not having the necessary experience at the very peak of football.
Scolari’s emergence as the leading candidate came after the FA’s six-man selection panel failed to agree on a domestic successor to Eriksson.
Arsenal vice-chairman and leading FA board member David Dein had been backing Scolari since the start of the process, having had links with him for several years.
With significant opposition to McClaren on the panel, Scolari’s impressive CV made him the only candidate who would command unity – he won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 and took Portugal to the Euro 2004 final.
