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Madrid demands La Liga president resigns after comparing attacks on referees with Nazi propaganda
A football club demands a league president resign; he compared their criticism of referees to Nazi propaganda tactics
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LA NACION
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid has again demanded the resignation of the president of La Liga after he compared the club’s efforts to discredit referees with the propaganda techniques of the German Nazi regime.
Javier Tebas lashed out at Madrid on Friday on social media with a long post that criticized how its club television channel says referees hurt its chances of winning.
The channel regularly runs reels of what it considers gross errors by match officials who are set to work upcoming games for the 15-time European champion.
Tebas compared the tactic with those of Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in World War II Nazi Germany.
“The executive of Real Madrid has an orchestra of mouthpieces and Real Madrid leads the way," Tebas wrote. "Its script is always the same: select plays that favor it, repeat the alleged affront, increase suspicion and name enemies. It reminds one of the propaganda techniques that Goebbels used.”
Tebas added “the comparison is with the techniques, not with the ideology or, of course, with Madrid fans.”
Madrid responded by saying in a statement that Tebas, who has clashed several times over the years with club president Florentino Pérez, was unfit to hold his job representing Spain’s top clubs.
Madrid also demanded his “immediate resignation.”
“Javier Tebas’s repeated conduct demonstrates a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities,” it said. “His constant attacks on Real Madrid and those demanding transparency and regeneration represent, in our club’s view, a genuine scourge for Spanish football.”
Coach Jose Mourinho has also voiced complaints that Madrid, which holds a record 36 Spanish league titles, is regularly hurt by referees.
In September, Madrid demanded Tebas step down after he criticized the club for attacking the refereeing crew in the 2-1 loss at Atletico Madrid .
In Friday's statement, Madrid repeated its complaint that Tebas hasn’t done enough over the on-going judicial probe into Barcelona’s alleged payments to an official on the refereeing committee of the Spanish soccer federation for several years.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
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