BRASILIA, June 25 — Portugal coach Paulo Bento will keep his job even if his side fail to reach the last 16 of the World Cup, the football federation’s vice-president said yesterday.
“We have not received any sign that Paulo Bento wants to leave, or that the federation wants to dispense with his services,” Humberto Coelho told reporters.
“Paulo Bento did not make any mention of this to the federation.”
Bento’s contract was extended for two years in April, taking him until Euro 2016, but Portugal’s poor performance in Brazil has cast doubts over his future.
“When we signed with Paulo Bento, it was with the perspective of taking us the finals of the European championship,” said Coelho.
“We renewed his contract to maintain stability within the national team and the federation. We have been qualifying for major finals for a while now and we want to keep doing so.”
He added: “At the end of the World Cup, we will have a meeting between all the departments to see what we can improve in the future.
“We are sad, but we are not throwing in the towel because we have one more game to play.”
Thrashed 4-0 by Germany and scraping a 2-2 by the United States, Portugal have only the slimmest of chances of progressing from Group G.
They must beat Ghana in Brasilia tomorrow, hope that Germany and the US do not draw and also make up a substantial disadvantage in goal difference.
Former Sporting coach Bento, who was a player in the Portugal team which was knocked out in the group stage in 2002, took over in September 2010 with the team in disarray after an awful start to Euro qualifying.
He quickly brought order to the side, winning his first five matches, and led them to Euro 2012 where they reached the semi-finals.
He has given a chance to a number of young players even though they have struggled to get games at clubs such as Benfica and Porto because of the number of foreign imports. — Reuters
