SANTIAGO, July 22: Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has claimed that Pele knows nothing about football and that the Brazil players had not wanted to receive the World Cup trophy from him after their 2-0 win over Germany in the final.

Pele took part in the ceremony at the end of the match at FIFA’s invitation but Scolari said in an interview published on Sunday that his players would have been happier without him.

“They didn’t want Pele to hand them the Cup,” Scolari told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera while on a skiing holiday in the Andes.

“If you talk badly about one person five times, you can’t expect that person to like you afterwards,” added the man known as Big Phil.

“I believe that Pele knows nothing about football.

“He has done nothing as a coach and all his analysis always turn out to be wrong. If you want to win a title, you have to listen to Pele and then do the opposite.”

Scolari added that if Pele had visited the team in their hotel during the competition, he would have been given a cool reception.

“Pele didn’t believe in the players, nor in the coach nor in Brazil’s tactics,” he said.

“The players and the national team staff knew that if Pele turned up there, he would not be welcome.

“He was at the trophy ceremony because he is the best player in the history of football, he’s an idol in all of Brazil but his analysis are worth nothing.”

Referring to Pele by his full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Scolari added: “What he said went in one ear and out the other. The problem is that I didn’t know whether it was Pele or Edson who was talking. They are two different men.”

Asked who he preferred, Scolari replied: “Neither”.

Scolari said he had been strongly influenced by Marcelo Bielsa, coach of Brazil’s arch-rivals Argentina, in his decision to adopt the controversial 3-5-2 system which eventually helped Brazil win their fifth world title.

“His system showed itself to be very efficient,” Scolari said.

Argentina, who began the tournament as favourites while Brazil started less fancied, went out in the first round.—Reuters