Rinaldi: Brazil selection never influenced

Brazil technical director Gilmar Rinaldi has denied allegations that there has ever been outside influence on the selection of the national team.

Reports in Brazil last month claimed that commercial and marketing partners held sway over which players were called up, but Rinaldi – whose team are at a training camp ahead of the Copa America – brushed off those suggestions.

“Here at the CBF [Brazilian Football Confederation] we have 100 per cent autonomy to do our work. We choose players that we want. Never in any moment has anyone suggested for us to choose any player,” he said.

“For curiosity I even called Felipao [former coach Luiz Felipe Scolari]. I asked him if this has happened at any moment and he made it very clear that that has never happened. So I want to make this very clear.

“And people who know [current coach] Dunga, Dunga’s way of being, no-one would have been able to suggest for use to choose any player.

“There was one suggesting that one time the microphone was turned on and some players who were on a list leaked that I was talking to Marco Polo and the ex-president that didn’t know that two players would be on the team, who were Firmino and Marcio Fernandes.

“What I want to say, is they only got to know the list during that moment. I just want to make that clear.”

Rinaldi said the CBF gave the staff complete control of football matters.

“The CBF, which I have voluntarily accepted with all this information, what we look after here is the technical part, the football part,” he said.

“What I can guarantee with the president and the directors they are giving us the means to do our work calmly, with all the autonomy possible.

“This is what I can say that fits into my part as a coordinator of the national teams.”

Brazil are in Group C at the Copa America, where they will face Peru, Colombia and Venezuela later this month.