The man set to lead the Brazilian Football Confederation says the beleaguered Luiz Felipe Scolari should stay on as national team coach despite the semi-final thrashing by Germany at the World Cup.
“We can all make mistakes,” Marco Polo Del Nero, set to replace Jose Maria Marin in January, told Friday’s Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.
“For me, he stays.”
Scolari has insisted since Tuesday’s 7-1 mauling to the Germans that the subject of his future in the hotseat should be left until the event has finished.
He told a news conference Wednesday he was not going to indulge in speculation about what happens next. The hosts play Holland for third place on Saturday.
Although the hammering to Germany saw Scolari lose some of the credit he earned in winning the 2002 World Cup, he remains a respected figure in Brazil.
Del Nero, who is due to meet Scolari after Saturday’s game, played down the fallout from the disastrous semi-final and missing out on the final.
“What happened was a tactical error,” he said of a game in which an emotionally fraught Brazil-without key man Neymar-were five goals adrift inside half an hour.
“But we all make mistakes. That can happen to anyone. The important thing is a good job was (otherwise) done.
“The campaign and the preparation were good.”
