Real Madrid has officially called for the immediate resignation of Javier Tebas from his roles as president of LaLiga and vice-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation after the La Liga chief made comments comparing the club’s communication methods to Nazi-era propaganda techniques.
In an official statement released on Friday through its X account, the club stated that it views Tebas’s remarks as “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 posted on social media that Real Madrid’s management “directs an orchestra of spokespersons, and Real Madrid TV leads the singing.”
He characterized the club’s tactics as picking out favorable plays, echoing grievances, stoking suspicion, and identifying enemies, noting that this approach “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 made clear that the comparison applied only to those techniques and had nothing to do with ideology or with Real Madrid’s supporters. Real Madrid dismissed the distinction.
The club portrayed Tebas’s remarks as “yet another episode in the repeated attacks by Javier Tebas against Real Madrid, its president, and its media outlets.”
The statement also tied the dispute to the long-running Negreira case, in which Barcelona paid the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees over the course of several years.
Real Madrid pointed out that it had already gone straight to UEFA to request 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 also urged a thorough revamp of the refereeing system and the related federation structures.
It determined that Tebas’s behavior shows “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.
