Real Madrid logo is seen on a football jersey in this illustration photo taken in a store in Krakow, Poland on July 24, 2025 (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto)
Real Madrid has formally demanded the immediate resignation of Javier Tebas as president of LaLiga and vice-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation following comments in which the LaLiga chief compared the club’s communication methods to Nazi-era propaganda techniques.
In an official statement published on Friday on its X handle, the club said it considers Tebas’s remarks “absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious.”
“Real Madrid CF considers it absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious that someone holding two positions of utmost responsibility in Spanish football resorts to a comparison with the propaganda methods of the Nazi regime to discredit our club, its management, and its television,” the statement read.
“The clarification that he is not referring to Nazi ideology does not mitigate the deeply offensive, morally repugnant, and institutionally unworthy nature of his statements,” the statement added.
Tebas had written on social media that Real Madrid’s management “directs an orchestra of spokespersons and Real Madrid TV leads the singing.”
He described the club’s approach as selecting favourable plays, repeating grievances, fueling suspicion and pointing out enemies, adding that the method “recalls propaganda mechanisms that Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, exploited: systematic repetition, construction of an enemy, and subordination of facts to the narrative.”
He stressed that the comparison was limited to those techniques and did not refer to ideology or Real Madrid supporters.
Real Madrid rejected the distinction.
The club framed Tebas’s comments as “yet another episode in the repeated attacks by Javier Tebas against Real Madrid, its president, and its media outlets.”
The statement also linked the dispute to the long-running Negreira case, in which Barcelona made payments over several years to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees.
Real Madrid noted that it has already approached UEFA directly seeking a full investigation.
“It is especially concerning that Tebas uses these statements to question the legitimate actions of Real Madrid and Real Madrid TV in relation to the Negreira case,” the club said.
“In light of the lack of response to the extraordinary seriousness of the Negreira case by the two institutions where Javier Tebas holds positions of utmost relevance, our club has had to approach UEFA directly to demand a full clarification of the payments made over the years by FC Barcelona.”
Madrid further called for a comprehensive overhaul of the refereeing system and relevant federation structures. It concluded that Tebas’s conduct demonstrates “a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities” and “disqualify him institutionally from continuing to hold the positions he occupies.”
“Consequently, Real Madrid demands his immediate resignation as president of LaLiga and vice-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation,” the statement ended.