Saturday, April 29, 2006

I don't usually have a good word to say about The Sun, but I think their exposé of Luiz Felipe Scolari in yesterday's edition was excellent. Readers were informed not only about his reliance on astrology and witchcraft but also about his homophobic views which led to protests by the gay community in Brazil.

Today on Sportsround Jake Humphrey reported: Until teatime yesterday it looked certain that Luiz Felipe Scolari would be the next England football coach. This is the man who took Brazil to the last world cup and of course got Portugal to the final of Euro 2004. He would have taken over from Sven after the summer, and as far as I'm concerned I think that would have been a fantastic appointment.

Well yes Jake, if you don't mind a bigot in charge then Scolari would be a fine choice. But these days decent people are against prejudice and homophobia, so when they found out that Scolari had once ruled out having gays in his football team, it was enough to rule him out of the job. The FA is doing its best to fight against prejudice in sport, and they're well rid of the likes of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

On Thursday, the day before The Sun report, Newsround had made his appointment their main news item. The programme included a short interview with Gary Lineker who said he was surprised at the news. He said Yes Scolari won the World Cup, but it was with Brazil and his granny could probably do the same with the Brazil team.

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