Real Madrid demands Tebas resign after Goebbels comparison
Real Madrid has called for the immediate resignation of La Liga president Javier Tebas after he likened the club’s management and its in-house television channel to the propaganda tactics of Nazi official Joseph Goebbels. Tebas said the way Real Madrid communicates and uses its channel “recalls propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels”. The Spanish giants described the remark as “deeply offensive” and “morally repugnant”. They also urged Tebas to step down from both his role as head of the top division and his position as vice‑president of the Spanish Football Association (RFEF).
In a statement the club said, “Real Madrid considers it absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious that someone holding two positions of utmost 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.”
On Friday Tebas posted a lengthy message on X in which he wrote, “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.” He added that this 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.”
Later Tebas clarified that he was referring only to “those propaganda techniques” and not to any ideology. Real Madrid rejected the explanation, saying it did not lessen the “institutionally unworthy nature of his statements”. The club added, “These statements constitute yet another episode in the repeated attacks by Javier Tebas against Real Madrid, its president and its media outlets.”
Last month Tebas criticised Real Madrid for alleging a refereeing conspiracy against the team. He has previously been critical of the club and its president Florentino Perez, especially after opposing their attempt to join a European Super League in 2021. In 2025 he said Real had “lost their head” after the club sent a formal complaint to the Spanish FA about refereeing decisions in La Liga.