Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari has been appointed to the club's football board.

The Guardian says the Brazilian replaces Avram Grant, whose position on the board was terminated three days after he guided Chelsea to their first-ever Champions League final in May. Scolari joins those on the plc board - Chelsea's chief executive, Peter Kenyon, the chairman, Bruce Buck, and Roman Abramovich's lieutenant, Eugene Tenenbaum - in the football boardroom.

The move means he will not see a director of football shoehorned in above him, the development that effectively caused a terminal breakdown in Jose Mourinho's relationship with his employers. But it also reflects Scolari's greater influence in transfer matters than the Portuguese enjoyed.