His appointment comes three days after coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and
his backroom staff resigned following Brazil's humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in their World Cup semi-final.
"He is general coordinator and he will coordinate all Brazil's national
teams, including the women's team," CBF president Jose Maria Marin said
at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro. "He is the link between the
president and the coaches."
Rinaldi, 55, was reserve keeper in 1994 when Brazil won their fifth
World Cup title. From the south of the country, he kept goal for
Internacional, Sao Paulo, Flamengo and Cerezo Osaka in Japan, before returning to his homeland to serve as technical director at Flamengo.
When he left
the Rio club, he served as a player's agent, but told reporters he had
on Wednesday informed his final clients he can no longer represent them.
Marin said Brazil hope to appoint Scolari's replacement by next Tuesday
but Rinaldi said there was no chance of them hiring a foreign coach for
the first time in their history, as some have wanted.
"I think this is the time to look inside our own house, for someone who
knows our problems and qualities - and there are many," Rinaldi said at
a press conference.
"We
want someone who knows us and we don't have a lot of time, we want to
choose someone quickly. We have a lot of good and well trained coaches. I
don't think (a foreign coach) would adapt to what we want right now."
SURPRISE APPOINTMENT
Rinaldi's appointment was a surprising one because he little experience at the highest levels.
Both he and Marin stressed one of his priorities is more coordination
between the youth sides and the main team and Alexandre Gallo, the man
who has been overseeing Brazil's young teams for 18 months, was at his
side during his presentation.
Gallo said more attention is being paid to the scores of young
Brazilians playing in Europe and said he hoped to bring them together
more often with home-based youths.
Argentina
and the United States are streets ahead of Brazil in working with young
players at a national level, Gallo said, with some Argentine youths
spending four months a year with the national set up, compared to 27
days in Brazil.
"We are
having serious problems against the South Americans and others," Gallo
said. "We can't compete against the US at Under-15 level."
Brazilian football is under pressure to modernise after its dismal
showing at the World Cup, a tournament it hosted for the first time
since 1950.
Brazil are the only team to win the World Cup five times and they had high hopes of making it six earlier this month.
Although they finished top of a group featuring Cameroon, Croatia and Mexico, they struggled to beat Chile and Colombia
in their next two matches and injuries and suspensions, allied to
tactical naivety and a lack of psychological preparation, led to the
historic 7-1 destruction by Germany.
Brazil's next matches are friendlies in September against Ecuador and Colombia. They also face Argentina and Turkey before the year is out.
Their next competitive fixtures will be in next year's Copa America in
Chile. (Writing by Andrew Downie; Editing by Tim Collings)