Lisbon, February 10:

Football fans in Portugal are evenly divided over whether they want Chelsea’s Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho to take over the national team next year, a poll published on Saturday showed.

Support for Mourinho taking over from Brazil’s Luiz Felipe Scolari, who is set to leave after Euro 2008, stands at 43.1 per cent with 42.2 opposed, the survey found. The 14.7 per cent did not have an opinion. Mourinho is under contract with Chelsea until 2010 but there has been widespread speculation in the British media that he may leave earlier because his relationship with the club’s owner Roman Abramovich has reportedly been strained.

Mourinho, who joined the London club in June 2004 from Portuguese side FC Porto, has said he wishes to run the Portuguese national team at some point in his career. The telephone poll of 500 people was carried out between January 16 and 18 by the Aximage polling firm.