World Cup: Neymar’s agent lashes out at Scolari

Brazil’s sports minister has called for an inquiry to find out the “root causes of the disaster” after the 7-1 World Cup semi-final defeat by Germany.

Luiz Scolari: Defended record. Picture: Getty

Aldo Rebelo’s comments came as Neymar’s agent Wagner Ribeiro launched an outburst at Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari calling him “an old jerk, repulsive and conceited”.

Scolari is expected to be replaced when Brazil’s tournament comes to an end after the third-place play-off with Holland tomorrow, and former Corinthians coach Tite, who led the club to a Copa Libertadores-Fifa Club World Cup double, is the favourite to succeed him.

Rebelo, however, has called for an inquiry to what has gone wrong with Brazilian football.

The sports minister told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro: “It’s a terrible blemish for Brazilian football because, against Germany, we have played 12 times and lost only four times.

“We must analyse the root causes of this disaster, learn the lessons and try to correct them so this doesn’t happen again, so that Brazil can regain it status in world football.”

Scolari’s time with the squad seems to be coming to an abrupt end, and Neymar’s agent Ribeiro produced a sarcastic list of “six requirements to be Brazilian coach” on his Twitter account.

These were:

“One – being Portugal coach and winning nothing.”

“Two – going to Chelsea and being sacked the following day.”

“Three – going to coach in Uzbekistan.”

“Four – returning to Brazil, taking over a big team [Palmeiras] and getting them relegated to the second division.”

“Five – leaving the club 56 days before the end of the Brasileirao [season] to ‘escape’ the relegation.”

“Six – being an old jerk, arrogant, repulsive, conceited and ridiculous.”

Scolari’s insistence that his squad were “still developing” and that most would be in the 2018 World Cup is not borne out by the facts. Among the current Brazil squad, only five of the 23 players will be under 30 in 2018, while 14 of the current Germany squad will still be in their 20s.

Scolari has continued to insist his record was something to be proud of, telling a news conference on Wednesday: “It’s the first time we reached a semi-final since 2002 so maybe our work wasn’t so bad.

“In official games we won eight, drew two and lost this one – okay, catastrophically. But this episode is over now. We must look forward.