MADRID, June 4 (Reuters) - Real Madrid on Thursday said Jose Mourinho would return to coach the club should its longtime President Florentino Perez win reelection.
It made its statement after Portuguese media expressed doubts about the authenticity of a video shared by Perez's team that appeared to show Mourinho confirming the move.
Asked about the veracity of the video, which featured a smiling Mourinho in a Real Madrid shirt saying: "Yes!", a spokesperson for Perez's reelection campaign, Jesus Bengoechea, told Reuters: "The video is authentic and was recorded."
Mourinho's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The video was posted on social media by Perez's office and was screened on prime-time television in Spain on Wednesday, but media in Mourinho's home country of Portugal, where he coaches Benfica, raised doubts that the footage of him was AI-generated.
Unable to confirm the video's authenticity, Reuters decided to withdraw its text and video stories earlier on Thursday.
Reuters' Visual Verification Team analysed the video using five separate AI detection tools, but their results were inconclusive.
Perez's campaign team posted the clip on X again on Thursday evening as the conclusion of a video montage entitled "Mourinho, next Real Madrid coach" that showed the Portuguese national in action on the sidelines and in post-game interviews.
Real Madrid and Mourinho's current club Benfica declined to comment on the video, though Benfica said in a separate statement that any move by Perez to appoint Mourinho would require payment of 15 million euros to terminate his contract.
Perez, the 79-year-old Real boss, is facing the first challenge to his presidency in 20 years from Spanish renewable energy tycoon Enrique Riquelme.
Riquelme has promised to turn the club's training ground into a social hub with facilities including a hotel, swimming pools, a gym, and activities designed to bring supporters closer to a club he says has drifted away from them.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, additional reporting by Silvio Castellanos; Writing by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
