Real Madrid Demand Javier Tebas Quit After Goebbels Comparison to Club TV

• Real Madrid have demanded the “immediate resignation” of LaLiga president Javier Tebas after he compared the club’s efforts to discredit referees with the propaganda techniques of Joseph Goebbels.
• Tebas wrote that the comparison “is with the techniques, not with the ideology or, of course, with Madrid fans.”
• It is the second time Madrid have called for his removal in recent weeks, after a similar demand in September.

Tebas Takes Aim at Real Madrid’s Club Television Channel

Real Madrid want Javier Tebas out of his job, and the LaLiga president handed them a fresh reason on Friday. In a long post on social media, Tebas criticised how the club’s own television channel says referees hurt its chances of winning. He likened the approach to the methods of Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany in the second world war.

The channel regularly runs reels of what it considers gross errors by match officials who are set to work upcoming games for the 15-time European champions. Tebas said the pattern is always the same. “The executive of Real Madrid has an orchestra of mouthpieces and Real Madrid leads the way,” he wrote. “Its script is always the same: select plays that favor it, repeat the alleged affront, increase suspicion and name enemies. It reminds one of the propaganda techniques that Goebbels used.”

He then added a qualification: “The comparison is with the techniques, not with the ideology or, of course, with Madrid fans.”

Madrid Reply With a Demand for His Resignation

The club answered in a statement that described Tebas as unfit to hold a job representing Spain’s top clubs. Tebas has clashed several times over the years with Madrid president Florentino Perez. “Javier Tebas’s repeated conduct demonstrates a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities,” the statement said.

Madrid went on: “His constant attacks on Real Madrid and those demanding transparency and regeneration represent, in our club’s view, a genuine scourge for Spanish football.”

The statement also repeated a complaint Madrid have made before. The club says Tebas has not done enough about the ongoing judicial probe into Barcelona’s alleged payments to an official on the refereeing committee of the Spanish football federation. In September, Madrid demanded that Tebas step down after he criticised the club for attacking the refereeing team in a 2-1 loss at Atletico Madrid.

A Week of Refereeing Complaints at Madrid

The row lands at the end of a week in which referees were never far from the conversation at Madrid. Coach Jose Mourinho has voiced complaints that Madrid, who hold a record 36 Spanish league titles, are regularly hurt by officials.

Forward Vinicius Junior was handed a four-game suspension in the Spanish league after a red card for pulling an opponent’s hair and for protesting against the referee. The ban rules him out of the clasico at Barcelona on 25 October. Mourinho asked whether it was normal for a player to “find out about his four-match suspension just two hours before kickoff”. He added: “they’ve started doing things without any shame.”

Vinicius took up the theme after Madrid’s 4-3 win at Roma in the Champions League. “I’ve been on the receiving end of 500 fouls, yet that has only resulted in five red cards,” he said. “Defenders are allowed to foul me the entire match but in the end it’s me who gets the card.” He said he wants more protection for talented players such as Lamine Yamal and Julian Alvarez.

Vinicius, 26, last scored for Madrid in August. He told reporters he had “no doubt” his form would return.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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