The Seleção boss recently named his squad for the friendlies against Costa Rica and Mexico, and in an effort to aid the top sides Campeonato Brasileiro due to a fixture clash, selected only one player each from six of the top seven sides.
However, he did not call up any members of the Corinthians team, prompting suggestions that he is giving them an unfair advantage.
“To minimise the loss to the clubs, we limited the selection to contain one player from each team,” Menezes said at a press conference on Thursday. “There is no other way; we have our goals and rightly so.”
Brazil face Costa Rica on October 7 and then Mexico four days later. With round 28 of the Brasileirão scheduled for October 5, 8 and 9, it means the likes of Neymar, Ronaldinho and Fred will be unavailable for their club sides.
The claim of favouritism arose when Menezes elected not to call up Corinthians’ Ralf, who has been included in recent squads. When questioned on the matter, Menezes refuted the suggestion.
“We have to think that there are serious people working here,” he said. “You cannot question every single thing that I do. Ralf came in because Sandro was injured, but now Sandro is back and I think he will be a key player for us at the 2014 World Cup.”
Menezes took over at Corinthians at the end of 2007, and was in charge for three years before leaving to coach Brazil.
