Scolari gets all-clear for England talks

Portuguese football chiefs have cleared the way for Luiz Felipe Scolari to discuss a possible move to England.

The Football Association have made the 57-year-old Portugal coach their top target and held talks with the Brazilian earlier this week.

Scolari is under contract until the end of the World Cup but the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) admit he is within his rights to talk about the England job.

FPF chairman Gilberto Madail told the OJogo newspaper: “Mr Scolari is a professional, he does whatever he has to do and doesn’t need my authorisation to do so.”

Scolari has a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with the FPF that he will not commit himself to any other job before the World Cup.

He insists he will not renege on this even though it has been reported the FA are close to making an announcement.

In an interview interpreted by BBC Radio Five Live, Scolari said: “An agreement is a very different thing to having a meeting. I can meet a person on a dance floor.

“It is absurd to think like this. I am a professional and I am going to respect my contract until July 31, this is the agreement I have and what I am going to do.

“Talk is one thing, managing training sessions is another. It is a very different subject.”

Madail also expects this agreement to be honoured even though the FPF appear resigned to losing Scolari in the long term.

“We have a contract with Mr Scolari until the end of the World Cup,” he said.

“We have an agreement and I don’t care what is said in England.

“This agreement will be respected because we are both gentlemen.”

Scolari has reportedly been offered a seven-year contract by the FA although it is claimed he has not reached any agreement over his financial package or the timing of his appointment.

“He laid out contracts for five...and seven years on the table,” the Brazilian was quoted as saying on The Times website at a dinner with FPF officials last night.

Such a long contract would mark a departure from the recent trend of offering contracts of up to four years based on World Cup and European Championship cycles.

Scolari was last night believed to be considering his options having been offered a package believed to be worth £3million a year.

It is claimed a sticking point could be that Scolari may want parity with outgoing manager Eriksson, who earns a salary of £4.5million.

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 is also still to agree the timing of his appointment.

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.

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren had been thought to be the favourite for the post but there was significant opposition to him 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.