Pele knows nothing about football, says Brazil coach Scolari

BRAZIL coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has claimed Pele knows nothing about football and the Brazil players had not wanted to receive the World Cup trophy from him after their 2-0 win over Germany in the final.

Pele took part in the ceremony at the invitation of FIFA but Scolari said in an interview his players would have been happier without him. “They didn’t want Pele to hand them the Cup,” Scolari told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera while on a skiing holiday in the Andes.

“If you talk badly about one person five times, you can’t expect that person to like you afterwards,” added the man known as Big Phil.

“I believe that Pele knows nothing about football. He has done nothing as a coach and all his analysis always turn out to be wrong. If you want to win a title, you have to listen to Pele and then do the opposite.”

Scolari added that if Pele had visited the team in their hotel during the competition, he would have been given a cool reception.

“Pele didn’t believe in the players, nor in the coach nor in Brazil’s tactics. “The players and the national team staff knew that if Pele turned up there, he would not be welcome. He was at the trophy ceremony because he is the best player in the history of football, he’s an idol in all of Brazil but his analysis is worth nothing.”

Referring to Pele by his full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Scolari added: “What he said went in one ear and out the other. The problem is that I didn’t know whether it was Pele or Edson who was talking. They are two different men.”

Asked who he preferred, Scolari replied: “Neither”. Scolari said he had been strongly influenced by Marcelo Bielsa, coach of Brazil’s arch rivals Argentina, in his decision to adopt the 3-5-2 system which helped Brazil win their fifth world title.

“His system showed itself to be very efficient,” Scolari said.

Argentina, who began as tournament favourites while Brazil started less fancied, went out in the first round.

Scolari, who took over Brazil last year with the team in the doldrums and led them to the world title in only 13 months, said he still did not know whether he would continue in one of the sport’s hottest seats.

He said he would like to coach Chile, even though they finished bottom of the 10-team South American World Cup qualifying group.

“It’s much better to work with a team which has nine places to go up than a team which is first and has nine places to go down,” Scolari said.