In Madrid, where the club’s own television channel has become a regular voice in debates around Spanish football, Real Madrid have issued a forceful response to journalist Juanma Castaño over a comparison made in an ABC column.
Real Madrid object to television-channel comparison
- On Monday, Castaño, a COPE journalist, published an ABC article titled Real Madrid at War.
- In the column, he wrote that the club’s official television outlet was calling for Real Madrid to leave domestic competitions, comparing Realmadrid TV with Gara in a reference to what he termed “ultra-Florentinismo”.
- Gara is a newspaper associated with Basque nationalist ideology and has a historical connection, cited by Real Madrid, to the milieu surrounding the terrorist group ETA.
- On Tuesday, Real Madrid released a statement condemning the analogy in unequivocal terms.
The club described Castaño’s comparison as “utterly deplorable and unacceptable”, arguing that linking its official broadcaster to a publication with that history crossed a line of exceptional seriousness.
Real Madrid defended Realmadrid TV’s role, saying the channel is entitled to report on matters affecting the institution and to protect the interests of the club, its members and its supporters.
The statement also stressed the scale and identity of the organisation behind the channel, presenting it as the official media platform of a club with 124 years of history and supporters across the world.
Possibility of further action
Madrid did not specify any immediate legal or disciplinary step, but made clear that the club is keeping open the option of taking whatever measures it considers appropriate. It characterised the article as an attack it cannot accept.
