Dec 13th, 2017

Dec 13th, 2017

Football Federation Australia says it is yet to approach any Socceroos coaching candidates, after World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari stated he was sounded out about the vacant position.

Scolari, who recently ended a two-and-a-half-year stint with Chinese top-flight outfit Guangzhou Evergrande, said Australia's governing body had been in talks with his agent about replacing Ange Postecoglou.

He was interested, but wanted a long-term contract.

"I am one of the names they spoke with ... to see if I was interested in taking them to the World Cup," Scolari told Reuters on Tuesday.

"I don't intend in just taking a team to the World Cup," the former Chelsea manager said.

"I intend on leading a team with an organised project for one or two years.

"But I am interested."

FFA denies making contact with potential candidates for the vacant Socceroos coaching job.

FFA said on Wednesday it had not yet approached any candidates because its selection panel was still defining criteria for the job it's tasked to fill by mid-February.

The nine-person panel featuring former Socceroos Mark Schwarzer, Stan Lazaridis and Mark Bresciano has already been inundated with hundreds of enquiries including from agents representing a number of high-profile names, with Scolari understood to be among them.

"We've had loads of expressions of interest and CVs sent to us from agents and intermediaries and the like, and some really high-profile names have been a part of that," FFA's head of national performance Luke Casserly told AAP.

"But we actually haven't commenced any discussions with any coach yet. We want to nut out the candidate profile before we do that.

"Because, of all that interest that comes in, once we're really clear on the profile we're targeting, 98 per cent of that interest will get shifted to the side."

That process starts on Wednesday night when FFA conducts its first round of video-link interviews with the panel's two "international experts", who are acting in a confidential advisory role.

In the coming days it will also seek advice from national technical director Eric Abrams, chief medical officer Dr Mark Jones and Socceroos assistant Ante Milicic, though the latter two will have no say in the appointment.

A clearer vision of what Postecoglou's successor will look like is expected by the middle of next week, with the interview process set to start in early January.

Should FFA go down the path of a foreigner, a name like Scolari's could not be ignored.

Having led Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002, Scolari suffered the ignominy of a 7-1 home defeat by Germany in the 2014 tournament - their first home loss since 1975.

Days later his second Brazil tenure ended after a 3-0 defeat to the Netherlands in the third-place play-off.

Since then the 69-year-old has won three Chinese Super League titles and an Asian Champions League trophy with cashed-up Guangzhou.

Former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson is another foreigner to have publicly flagged his interest amid a throng of rumoured others including Marcelo Bielsa, Juergen Klinsmann and Bert van Marwijk.

Locally, Graham Arnold's drum is still beating loudest, with the contracted Sydney FC coach understood to be interested though waiting for FFA to reach out.

©RAW2017