Castaño stands firm as Real Madrid video escalates row

Castaño stands firm as Real Madrid video escalates row Juanma Castaño responded on air after Real Madrid published a social-media video attacking him and his work on El Partidazo de COPE over the past decade, accusing club president Florentino Pérez of waging a personal crusade against him. According to Marca , Castaño used his programme to reject the club’s video point by point and insisted he would not change his approach. Castaño answers Real Madrid’s video attack The video arrived after an earlier Real Madrid communiqué and a response from Real Madrid TV to Castaño’s apology, part of the fallout from his rejected apology to the club’s television channel . Castaño told listeners he had been sent videos and communiqués attacking him but would keep saying what he believed he had to say from an honest position, adding that it bothered him but came with the job. The ABC comparison that triggered the dispute The row traces back to Castaño’s comparison of Real Madrid’s television channel with Gara in a column for ABC, a comparison the club had already branded, per the statement carried by El Desmarque , as deplorable and inadmissible given Gara’s historical links to ETA. Castaño had already apologised publicly for the specific comparison while continuing to criticise the channel’s editorial line, and Marca reports that the club had already responded through a communiqué and via RMTV before the video escalated matters further. Why Castaño says the dispute is with Florentino Pérez, not Real Madrid Castaño argued that Pérez had turned him into an enemy and that the club’s real problem was not him but Barcelona sitting six points clear while playing well, insisting he had no bearing on that gap. He said he intended to separate his criticism of Pérez from his relationship with Real Madrid as a club, adding that he still considered Pérez, in his own words, the best president in the club’s history for what he has achieved, even as he refused to soften his commentary going forward.