Real Madrid calls for resignation of La Liga president Javier Tebas after he compares club's media strategy to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels

The weeks-long feud between La Liga president Javier Tebas and Real Madrid reached a new peak on Friday, as the club called for Tebas’ “immediate resignation” after he compared Madrid’s media strategy to that of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. In a lengthy post on X posted Friday, Tebas accused Real Madrid of using propaganda to shape favor for the club and evoked Goebbels in his comparison. The accusation came as a result of Tebas calling out what he believed was press coverage in Spanish outlet “El Debate” that overly favored the club, and echoed opinions about refereeing and scheduling from Real Madrid TV. “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,” Tebas wrote. “That method recalls propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s minister of propaganda: systematic repetition, construction of an enemy, and subordination of facts to the narrative.” Even with the wild claim, Tebas tried to hedge that he did not made the accusation around Goebbels’ ideology: “The comparison is with those propaganda techniques, not with an ideology or, of course, with the Madridista fanbase.” Real Madrid put out a scathing statement shortly afterwards, calling it “absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious” for Tebas to evoke the Nazi regime. “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 team said. Madrid also pointed to what the club believes is a pattern of unprovoked criticism from the league boss, calling it “a genuine scourge for Spanish football.” “These statements constitute yet another episode in the repeated attacks by Javier Tebas against Real Madrid, its president, and its media outlets. It is unacceptable that he even takes advantage of questions, information, or opinions from journalists unrelated to the club to direct his accusations at us, attributing to us actions of third parties for which we bear no responsibility,” the statement said. “Javier Tebas's repeated conduct demonstrates a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities. “For all these reasons, Real Madrid C. F. considers that the repeated statements and behaviors of Javier Tebas would be unacceptable in any European sports institution governed by principles of respect, neutrality, and integrity, and that they disqualify him institutionally from continuing to hold the positions he occupies.” Madrid then ended the statement by saying it “demands” the resignation of Tebas, who serves as both La Liga president and as vice president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF). After the initial exchange, Tebas continued to dig in with multiple lengthy posts in the following hours. In one post , he told Real Madrid that in its ask for him to be neutral, the club “confuses neutrality with independence.” In another , he again defended his comparison to Goebbels by repeating that he did not include the propagandist’s ideology in the comparison. “I've lost count of the times that, in thirteen years, Real Madrid's leaders have demanded my resignation or tried to disqualify me,” Tebas said in his first response to Madrid’s statement. “Today's is just another one. What still hasn't arrived are the responses.” This is the second time in the past month that Real Madrid has called on Tebas to resign: The club made a similar call in September, citing what it called “inappropriate and prolonged behavior” from the league president. Some of the feud has stemmed from the Negreira case, an ongoing investigation into alleged officiating corruption at FC Barcelona that Real Madrid, as Barcelona’s rival, has been pushing La Liga to take action on. Earlier this month, Madrid sent UEFA a dossier of documents that is reportedly 50,000 pages long as evidence in the case. Tebas mentioned the case in his statement on Friday, prompting Madrid to call it “especially concerning” that Tebas used the instance to raise questions over the club and its media arm.