SOCCER: JOSE MOURINHO stood at the centre of yet another controversy yesterday when the Portuguese manager was forced to deny he was about to leave Real Madrid despite his official spokesman supposedly suggesting he was planning to quit.

Eladio Parames, who speaks on Mourinho’s behalf, was earlier reported to have told a Spanish TV station, via text message, that Mourinho was to walk away. Yet he quickly denied the quotes with the unconvincing explanation that an imposter had been using his mobile phone.

Picking through the rubble as the fallout continued into the afternoon, it was not clear if this was a genuine misunderstanding, a sneaky plot, or a moment’s indiscretion come back to haunt the Portuguese manager’s camp, yet it still prompted Mourinho into making a statement on the club’s website. “There is no way I’m leaving. No way,” he said.

Canal+ TV broke the news. It cited text messages from Parames’s phone, sent as the channel sought to arrange an interview with the Real Madrid manager.

According to the broadcaster, the messages said Mourinho felt he did not have the backing of the board and was contemplating announcing his resignation.

The channel said it had been given permission by Parames to release the information – this was not an off-the-record briefing but something Mourinho’s camp wanted in the public sphere. The revelation came in the aftermath of the Spanish Super Cup defeat to Barcelona, during which Mourinho poked the Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye.

The Spanish Football Federation’s disciplinary committee has confirmed it will investigate the events at Camp Nou and that Mourinho may face a ban of four to 12 games or six to 15, depending on which of two possible charges is brought against him.

Since the Super Cup, Mourinho has been the focus of strong criticism from the media and Barcelona officials. Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez, has stayed silent, choosing neither to defend his coach nor censor his actions.

Marca claimed Mourinho was “sorry” for what had happened. But Parames said on Sunday Mourinho had nothing to be sorry for.

He complained the mobile from which the text message was sent was a pay-as-you-go phone he had bought soon after Mourinho joined Madrid, but which he had since stopped using. He said he had left the phone in a drawer and that someone must have used the number and pretended to be Mourinho’s spokesman.

Guardian Service