Real Madrid demands Javier Tebas resign over Goebbels comparison
The club wants the La Liga president to leave both his league and federation posts after he likened its communications tactics to Nazi propaganda methods.
Real Madrid called on Friday, 16 October, for La Liga president Javier Tebas to resign after he compared the club’s communications tactics with propaganda methods used by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany. The club wants him to leave both his league presidency and his vice-presidency of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, extending a dispute over its public criticism of refereeing decisions.
In a social media post, Tebas accused Real Madrid’s management of directing an ‘orchestra of mouthpieces’, with the club’s television channel taking the lead. He criticised its practice of highlighting decisions it considers errors by referees assigned to upcoming matches. The Guardian reported that the channel regularly broadcasts compilations of those decisions.
Tebas said the approach recalled Goebbels’s propaganda techniques. He added that his comparison concerned those techniques, rather than Nazi ideology or Real Madrid supporters. Reuters reported that the post followed articles by two El Debate journalists whom Tebas accused of amplifying the club management’s message. Real Madrid said the journalists were unrelated to the club and rejected responsibility for their work.
Real Madrid’s demand for both posts
Real Madrid called Tebas’s comparison ‘intolerable and extraordinarily serious’. In its statement, the club said his repeated conduct showed a lack of neutrality, respect and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities. BBC Sport reported that the club regarded his clarification as insufficient to lessen the seriousness of the remarks.
The demand follows earlier clashes over refereeing. Reuters reported that Madrid had also called for Tebas to leave in September after he criticised its complaints about match officials. An earlier NewsJaws report covered the club’s criticism of Tebas over refereeing complaints; Friday’s comparison prompted the new demand for his resignation from both posts.
Tebas has led La Liga since 2013 and was re-elected without opposition in 2023 for a term running through 2027, Reuters reported. He is elected by the 42 professional clubs in Spain’s top two divisions. Hours before Madrid issued its statement, La Liga confirmed the club would be one of six members of the league’s Executive Committee this season.
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Sources and context
- Real Madrid demand Javier Tebas resignation over Joseph Goebbels comparisonBBC Sport
- Real Madrid demand La Liga president resign over Goebbels comparisonThe Guardian
- Real Madrid demand resignation of LaLiga chief after Nazi propaganda comparisonReuters, republished by Channel NewsAsia
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.