Real Madrid have called for LaLiga president Javier Tebas to immediately resign after he accused the club of employing techniques used by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
Real and Tebas have clashed on a number of occasions this season, with the league chief’s remarks in an X post on Friday appearing to be the final straw for the club.
Tebas’ post accused journalists of acting as the “official mouthpiece” for the club to air grievances. He has since added as clarification: “The comparison is with those propaganda techniques, not with an ideology or, of course, with the Madridista fanbase.”
Real, though, took a dim view of his words, saying in a club statement: “The repeated conduct of Javier Tebas shows a lack of neutrality, respect and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities.
“Real Madrid CF considers it absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious that someone who occupies two positions of utmost responsibility in Spanish football should resort to a comparison with the propaganda methods of the Nazi regime to discredit our club, its management and its television.
“His constant attacks on Real Madrid and those who demand transparency and regeneration constitute, in the opinion of our club, a real scourge for Spanish football.”
Real called for his immediate resignation from his LaLiga position and from his vice-presidency of the Spanish football federation (RFEF).
Javier Tebas
Getty
The club said it was “especially concerning” that Tebas referenced the Negreira case in the X post.
Real have handed a dossier to UEFA about the case, which centres on payments from Barcelona to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish Football Federation’s technical committee of referees (CTA).
Barcelona say the payments were for scouting and technical reports provided by Negreira on officials, but it has been alleged previously that the money was being used to bribe referees.
Real said: “It is particularly significant that Javier Tebas….dedicates his efforts to discrediting Real Madrid instead of promoting, from his institutional responsibilities, the clarification of these very serious facts and the necessary regeneration of Spanish football.”
Tebas’ original social media post read: “Real Madrid’s management directs an orchestra of mouthpieces and Real Madrid TV leads the singing.
“Their score is always the same: select the plays that suit them, repeat the grievance, feed the suspicion, and point fingers at the enemies. That method recalls propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels: systematic repetition, construction of an enemy, and subordination of facts to the narrative.”
Real, however, responded: “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.”