Soccer: Scolari pulls out of England race

Luiz Felipe Scolari threw the English Football Association (FA) into chaos yesterday when he announced his withdrawal from the race to be the new England manager just as the FA were preparing to appoint him.

In an astonishing turnaround, the Brazilian broke the news at a press conference in Germany with the words "I will not be the England coach".

The FA only knew that the announcement from Scolari was coming two hours before he spoke and last night they were coming to terms with the realisation that the 57-year-old had simply used their lucrative offer to obtain what promises to be a much-improved offer from the Portuguese football federation, the PFF.

The credibility of the FA's five-man appointment committee, led by their chief executive, Brian Barwick, is in tatters.

In a statement, the FA said: "Luiz Felipe Scolari made the FA aware of his intention to release a statement regarding the England head coach position.

It is no secret that Mr Scolari is one of the candidates that the FA has spoken to as part of the recruitment process.

"We will now reflect on his announcement before making any further comment as we move forward with the process."

Scolari is also known to be extremely sensitive to allegations that he has broken the gentleman's agreement with the PFF not to make a decision on his future before the World Cup finals begin.

It would appear that he has decided, despite two interviews with the FA, that he does not want to break that agreement, and the timing of his decision could not be more damaging to the FA.

There was also a wrangle over pay for Scolari with the Brazilian deeply unhappy about the offer of £2.5m, half what Sven Goran Eriksson earns as his "basic salary".

He would have earned more with win bonuses but he was not impressed that, as a World Cup winner, he was being offered less than the Swede.

The FA will now surely find it impossible to return to negotiations with Scolari and will surely focus on another candidate, possibly the second choice Steve McClaren.

Whatever their decision, there can be no doubt that Scolari has made a mockery of the FA's appointment process.

The Brazilian said that the media attention he has been forced to endure from the English and Portuguese press in the last week was one of the key reasons for not taking the job.

He said he had read newspaper comparisons between himself and his wife, Olga, and Sven Goran Eriksson and his partner, Nancy Dell'Olio, and found the intrusion into his private life difficult to endure.

Although for someone who has withstood the Brazilian media's spotlight that sounds unlikely.

Speaking at the Hotel Klosterpforte, Portugal's World Cup base near to Dortmund, Scolari said: "Portugal at this moment cannot cope with a coach negotiating with other federations - they don't really need it at the time being.

"Yesterday I talked with a few friends who helped in my decision. There were 20 reporters in front of my house - that was too much and I didn't like it all. I have been in talks with the English FA and I want to thank the Portuguese Federation president [Gilberto Madail] for giving [me] the chance to talk to them.

"I am not and will not be the England coach but I am happy the English federation [FA] remembered my name and I expect them to name the new coach in the days to come. It was an interesting offer with several interesting options and I really thought about it for a long time."

While the wording of Scolari's statement, which was delivered without taking questions, may sound totally unequivocal, sources in Portugal say that he may have left himself room to change his mind yet again.

They compared it to the time Benfica tried to sign him as their manager before Euro 2004 - when, on that occasion, Scolari came to rule out that option, he left the media in no doubt that he would not be changing his mind.

The news had broken in Portugal shortly before the Scolari press conference that the coach was to sign a new two-year deal with the national team.

That was broadcast on Portuguese national radio and was heralded as a great triumph for the PFF.

The Stuttgart and Portugal defender Fernando Meira was even interviewed on television talking about the PFF's coup in persuading Scolari to sign a new contract.

However, when Scolari came to make the announcement there was no mention of a new two-year contract, which led some Portuguese observers to suggest that he may yet come back to the FA to negotiate.

However, the FA now feel that they cannot go back to a man who has been responsible for such a public humiliation.

The FA now face the question of: "Who next?" The most obvious candidate is McClaren, whose Middlesbrough side staged a thrilling comeback in the Uefa Cup semi-final against Steaua Bucharest on Thursday night just as it looked like Scolari would get the job.

The Middlesbrough chairman, Steve Gibson, said after the game that he was sad for McClaren to miss out on the England job "because he wanted it so much" - he may now get it.

The appetite for a second foreign manager after Eriksson will now have been completely extinguished within the FA and they are likely to go for one of the safer British options.

Martin O'Neill, Sam Allardyce and even Alan Curbishley are surely back among the running.

The main board are also likely to look at the appointment procedure with serious questions likely to be asked about the competence of Barwick to get the right man second time round.

- INDEPENDENT