Freshly reappointed Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is a "great specialist" when it comes to winning World Cups having performed the feat in 2002, according to Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) head Jose Maria Marin.
Scolari, 64, was brought back to the job a decade on from the triumph he masterminded in Japan after the CBF sacked Mano Menezes despite recent high-scoring friendly wins over Iraq and Japan.
"Felipao is a specialist when it comes to tackling World Cup. The experience of winning the title weighs in his favour," Marin said in an interview with O Globo newspaper.
"With an international record from also being in charge of Portugal (one can see) he is a great motivator and our country needs a motivator like 'Felipao'," said Marin, who insisted ahead of the move to appoint the veteran that a Brazilian had to be in charge for a World Cup on home soil in 2014.
Marin indicated meanwhile that he had felt a groundswell of opposition to Menezes continuing in the post though several former players have disagreed.
"We felt there was a clamour from the fans and took the pulse of the media - there was a demand for change," said former nationalist politician Marin.
The Olympic final loss to Mexico was in effect the final straw as the CBF decided it needed a new, or in the case of Scolari, new-old face in the hotseat.
Marin suggested that the CBF would always act if it felt there had to be personnel changes.
"This is not the first, and it will not be the last change of coach - it is normal to keep a close eye on (his) work. I followed it closely ahead of the sacking of Menezes.
"I was at the Olympics, the friendlies. I saw and heard as we lost the Olympics, the Copa America," he said of major failures of the Menezes' regime to land silverware.
The summer loss to Mexico in the final of the London Games denied Brazil a first title at that level.
Marin denied he had taken soundings from former CBF head Ricardo Teixeira, who left the post earlier this year after becoming embroiled in accusations of corruption.
Brazil turned to Scolari just ahead of the December 1 draw for next June's Confederations Cup which they will host amid suggestions, denied by FIFA, that the world body had put pressure on to make a decision rather than be rudderless at the draw.
Source: AFP
