Johannesburg - Eighteen months after he quit, Brazilian Carlos Parreira returned as coach to South Africa's national football team Friday, replacing his compatriot Joel Santana, who was dismissed this week, television reports said.

South Africa's private ETV channel reported that the South African Football Association picked Parreira, 66, to try to turn around the lacklustre World Cup host side in the eight months left to go before kick-off in the tournament.

SAFA's national executive committee was still meeting behind closed doors in Johannesburg.

The Brazilian, who led his country to the 1994 World Cup title, was no surprise choice, even though some South African football commentators had been rooting for a local coach for Bafana Bafana.

South African media have been reporting for weeks that Parreira was poised for a comeback - even before Santana agreed to leave on Monday following a string of embarrassing defeats.

Santana's exit followed Bafana's defeat in eight of its nine last games to mostly mediocre teams.

Parreira had resigned in April last year, saying he wanted to return home for family reasons and recommending Santana, a former coach to Brazilian club Flamengos, to replace him.(dpa)