Madrid’s institutional football row has widened after Javier Tebas rejected calls to apologise for remarks linking Real Madrid TV’s communication methods to propaganda techniques associated with Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany.
José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, president of Spain’s Higher Sports Council (CSD), had urged the LaLiga president to withdraw the comparison. Tebas did not do so, instead issuing a measured response arguing that similar historical references have been used publicly by senior politicians without prompting equivalent demands for clarification.
Quick facts
- Rodríguez Uribes called on Javier Tebas to apologise over comments about Real Madrid TV.
- Tebas said his comparison concerned propaganda methods, not ideology.
- He stressed that Real Madrid supporters were not included in his criticism.
- The LaLiga president cited past remarks by Óscar Puente and Patxi López as comparable public examples.
Tebas pointed Rodríguez Uribes towards two social-media posts from Transport Minister Óscar Puente: one dated 23 September 2025 concerning Telemadrid, and another from 29 July 2026 responding to a message from Jorge Buxadé. He also referenced two comments by Patxi López, the Socialist spokesman in Congress, from 29 March 2025 and 19 September 2026.
He said the four examples allowed the wording and their references to Goebbels to be examined directly, adding that they were not isolated cases. Tebas maintained that he holds further examples of public officials using the same type of comparison.
“You have highlighted the institutional responsibility attached to my position,” Tebas told the CSD chief. “I agree that this responsibility must be borne in mind.”
He argued, however, that the same standard should apply when assessing statements from a government minister or the spokesman of a parliamentary group. In his view, the issue was the consistency of public scrutiny rather than an exemption from responsibility for his own office.
Tebas also sought to distinguish the target of his original criticism. He said he had referred to a way of producing propaganda and had not made an ideological comparison, while explicitly separating Real Madrid’s fanbase from the matter.
“From the presidency of the CSD, one expects rigour, impartiality and consistency,” he said. “Institutional responsibility requires a stable standard, regardless of who makes the criticism or who receives it.”
