Scolari puts cat among pigeons

Soccer: The long road to the appointment of an England manager has led to farce. It emerged last night that Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had withdrawn his name from consideration.  The humiliation is devastating for the Football Association.

It had been assumed that the flight to Lisbon by the chief executive Brian Barwick on Wednesday meant that an agreement in principle existed.

The FA, too, was wholly convinced they had achieved their aim. So there was universal astonishment when Scolari delivered his announcement last night while visiting the training facilities Portugal will use in Germany this summer. His initial reasons were the extent of media harassment since the FA chairman Brian Barwick's flight to Lisbon for talks on Wednesday, complaining of "20 reporters outside my house".

The remarks about the stresses of the post were bizarre, since his experience of guiding Brazil to the 2002 World Cup while coping with some of most extreme media scrutiny on the planet suggested that he was iron-clad. The search is already on to probe deeper into his motivation for spurning England, but this is already devastating for the FA.

Even if Scolari actually is indulging in mere negotiating tactics aimed at matching Sven-Goran Eriksson's deal, with its salary of some £4 million, the Brazilian has probably rendered himself unapproachable. There could be no faith in a person whose commitment has been shown to be so shallow.

The FA is aghast, too, because misjudgment on this scale could be a resignation issue. The FA, having lost Adam Crozier and Mark Pails in a brief period, may doubt whether Barwick can remain in place. For his part, the former television executive will be thunderstruck that the advocacy of Scolari by Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein has turned out to be misconceived.

Dein, who brought Arsène Wenger to Arsenal and guided Eriksson to England, knows Scolari and convinced himself and all others on the appointments sub-committee, that Scolari was the outstanding candidate. After the visit to Lisbon the FA did not tell the other interviewees that they had lost out to the Brazilian.

The ruling body will now argue that it refrained from doing so because they hadn't reached full agreement with Scolari. Nonetheless, the dealings had gone so far with the Portugal coach that it is impossible to believe they genuinely retain an interest in the also-ran.

If they are still willing to consider the post, and once pride has been set to one side, each candidate might believe he holds the whip hand in negotiations with a quivering FA. Sam Allardyce merits early plaudits for the comments he made after word had come through of the overtures to Scolari.

He said that he did not believe the British candidates could be said to have lost out until agreement had been reached between the FA and Scolari. If Bolton's manager had access to information denied the rest of us his impressive intelligence network alone marks him out as a high-calibre individual.

Steve McClaren, for his part, may be dazed. On Thursday night, he enjoyed the thrilling consolation of a Uefa Cup final place after Middlesbrough's 4-3 aggregate win over Steaua Bucharest. Less than 24 hours later, he finds himself back in the race to succeed Eriksson. The current assistant to the England manager had generally been viewed as the favourite to succeed him until the upsurge of Scolari's candidacy. On that basis, he should soon be getting some fawning calls from Soho Square. The situation now, however, is so confused that any assumptions about the next development might be an exercise in futility.

Only the humiliation of the FA is indisputable. Never before has the body been spurned in such a way and the competence of everyone involved is open to the deepest of doubts. The credibility gap seems like an unbridgeable gap. The process of identifying a new manager was so protracted and bureaucratic that the only excuse for it lay in thoroughness.

By last night that defence was risible. If Barwick, Dein and the rest have go it so badly wrong there will be a reluctance to accept that they should even be permitted to try again. Eriksson himself is one of the few who may at least cock an eyebrow in amusement.

He was effectively parted from the post after being fooled by a fake sheikh. The Swede was scorned for his naivety. But his employers now look like far poorer judges. Maybe Eriksson should be invited to stay on as manager while they leave.