Tebas compares Real Madrid TV with Nazi propaganda and the white club demands that he resign

Barcelona"The management of Real Madrid conducts an orchestra of gatecrashers and Real Madrid TV is its greatest exponent. Its score is always the same: select the plays that interest them, repeat the grievance, fuel suspicion, and point out enemies. This method recalls propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany: systematic repetition, construction of an enemy, and subordination of facts to the narrative". This is just a fragment of the extensive tweet made by Javier Tebas, president of the League and vice president of the Spanish Federation (RFEF), to criticize Real Madrid's actions after learning of the four-match suspension imposed on Vinícius.

The Brazilian forward was sent off on Saturday in the match against Villarreal for pulling Nathan Saliba's hair, and subsequently confronted the referee over the decision. The RFEF disciplinary committee has punished Vinícius with four matches, two for the assault and two more for yelling at the referee. A decision that has not pleased Real Madrid at all –among other reasons, because Vinícius will miss the classic against Barça on October 25th–, which has protested through its official channels.

The club's reaction has not pleased Tebas at all, who for years has shown his frontal disagreement with the decisions made by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. In the tweet, he criticizes the media environment that Florentino surrounds himself with so that the media, whether they are the club's own or those aligned with his policy, reproduce the message –in his view– in an uncritical way. Tebas points to Real Madrid TV as the spearhead of this machinery and points to two journalists from El debate, Tomás Gonzalez Martin and Jesús Urdiola, as acting as spokespeople. "Every day it is more difficult to distinguish your articles from a statement by the Real Madrid management," says Tebas, who also calls them "portaCOCES".

According to Tebas, these journalists "use identical expressions" to those he has previously heard from a high-ranking executive at Valdebebas. Although he does not specify who this person is, he denounces that there is direct and uncritical communication between the presidency of Florentino Pérez and these journalists.

Apart from criticizing their publications, Tebas takes advantage of the tweet to rebut the arguments of the whites and, in the specific case of match schedules, the president of La Liga denies that there is any intention to penalize Real Madrid. On the contrary, he asserts that it is the club with the most change requests accepted. The text is forceful, although Tebas clarifies that "the comparison is with these [Nazi] propaganda techniques, not as an ideology nor, of course, with the Madrid fan base".

Madrid asks him to resign

The white club has reacted with a very harsh statement in which it states that it considers it "absolutely intolerable and of extraordinary gravity that someone who holds two positions of maximum 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 station". According to the statement, "these declarations constitute a new episode of Javier Tebas's repeated attacks against Real Madrid, its president, and the media. It is inadmissible that he even takes advantage of questions, information, or opinions from journalists outside the club to direct his disqualifications against us, attributing to us the actions of third parties for which we have no responsibility".

Furthermore, Madrid recalls that Tebas is not helping them when it comes to talking about the Negreira case, they call for "a comprehensive renewal of the refereeing system and the federative structures of government, management, supervision, and discipline" and finally they demand that Tebas resign, since his "repeated conduct evidences a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities. His constant attacks on Real Madrid and those who demand transparency and regeneration constitute, according to our club, a true scourge for Spanish football".