THE LATEST piece in Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes' plans for Celtic was put in place yesterday when a work permit was granted to their #5.5m Brazilian signing, Rafael Felipe Scheidt.

Dalglish predicted that the whole of Scottish football would benefit from Celtic's capture of the defender, who is an ever-present in his national squad, no mean feat considering the amount of talent the South American country has at its disposal.

The signing is a coup for Celtic and will bolster their title aspirations, but Dalglish was keen to stress yesterday that the Scottish Premier League's status will also be boosted by the signing. ''From Celtic's perspective, we are delighted to be bringing a player of Rafael's quality to Celtic and we are sure that he will not only enhance the Celtic squad, but also Scottish football as a whole,'' said Dalglish.

The Parkhead club are playing things firmly by the book regarding the player and, although they have been given verbal notification of the decision, they are waiting for all the official documentation arriving before beginning the process to bring the player over to Scotland.

If everything goes to plan, the 23-year-old centre half will link up with his new team-mates at their training camp in the Algarve in the New Year and is in the running to make his debut in their first game after the winter break, against Kilmarnock.

His signing is an intriguing one and it will be interesting to see who makes way for the talented Brazilian. By all accounts, he is a commanding figure in central defence, which suggests he is a similar player to Alan Stubbs, probably too similar for them to play together, which may suggest the Englishman may be the fall-guy in all of this at some stage.

With Mark Rieper fighting a toe injury that still jeopardises his career, Tom Boyd, who is also out through injury, not getting any younger, and Olivier Tebily still in his first season, the permutations at the back for Celtic in the New Year could be interesting.

The go-ahead for Rafael was given yesterday by Government minister Margaret Hodge, who rubber-stamped a recommendation from a tribunal that met in Glasgow and which included former Celtic and Hibs player Pat Stanton as well as veteran broadcaster Bob Crampsey.

The Department for Education and Employment confirmed yesterday that the player would be granted an initial three-year work permit, one that begins immediately, and that decision effectively removes the final obstacle in the way of the player moving from the Brazilian club, Gremio Porto Alegre, to SPL title challengers Celtic.

The case in favour of Rafael, who has agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract, ran the risk of being undermined slightly by his failure to have played 75% of his country's internationals during the past two years.

However, Celtic made a firm case on the player's behalf, with director of football Dalglish fighting his corner at the tribunal, where it was made clear that he had established himself in the full Brazilian squad.

The fact that players of the quality of Rivaldo, the Barcelona player who recently was chosen as European Footballer of the Year, and previous winner Ronaldo, formerly of Barca but now with Italian club Inter Milan, have also vouched for him in written statements clearly helped his case.

A DfEE spokesman said last night that, although Rafael had only been granted a three-year work permit, he could apply for an extension to take him through to the end of his four-and-a-half-year contract as a matter of course, provided he played a certain amount of games in the Celtic first team, a figure still to be worked out.

The player has played for the Brazilian national team, as well as the Olympic team, and will have no problems adapting to crowds of 60,000 at Celtic Park as Gremio's capacity is 55,000, so he will be well used to playing in front of a large, partisan audience.

The sweltering heat of South America compared with winter in Glasgow may be a more difficult thing to deal with, but obviously Dalglish and Barnes expect their man to settle in quickly to the rigours of Scottish football.

Sadly, it could be the case that, as Rafael consolidates his place at the heart of the Celtic defence in the coming months, Rieper will have to leave Parkhead because of a troublesome toe injury that refuses to heal.

Rieper has been plagued by the problem that has ruled him out for more than a year and has been receiving treatment back home in Denmark.

The results were disappointing, with the Danish doctor concerned stating that the injury did not appear to be healing, despite three operations, and Rieper has made it clear he will tell Celtic by the end of February what his plans are for the future.

Rieper, who joined Celtic from West Ham United in September 1997, has returned to Scotland from Denmark and intends to take in the vital Old Firm game against Rangers on Monday.