By Robbie Blakeley, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mano Menezes was relieved yesterday of his duties as coach of the Brazilian national team. After a meeting in São Paulo the CBF, Brazil’s football federation, decided to give Menezes his marching orders after almost two-and-a-half years in charge.
A new coach is set to be announced in January, with three frontrunners already making headlines across the country. Corinthians coach Tite, Santos coach Muricy Ramalho, and Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to their last World Cup triumph in 2002, are the men most strongly linked with the position.
At the time of writing Menezes has not yet released a statement to the press but will feel hard done by with the Confederations Cup seven months away and a slow but positive turnaround in recent results.
However the CBF will point to failures in the 2011 Copa America and the 2012 Olympic Games, as well as allowing Brazil to fall to their lowest ever FIFA ranking (14th).
In total, Menezes took charge of 33 official games with the national side. Of those, he won 21, drew six and lost six and has faced repeated criticism for failing to identify the foundations of a side that could compete not only at the Confederations Cup but more importantly at the 2014 World Cup on home soil.
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