Real Madrid have demanded the immediate resignation of LaLiga president Javier Tebas after he compared the methods used by the club's leadership and its television channel to Nazi propaganda techniques, in an extraordinary escalation of Spanish football's longest-running feud.
The club issued a furious official statement on Friday calling for Tebas to step down both as LaLiga president and as vice-president of the Spanish football federation, according to Reuters. Madrid described the comparison as deeply offensive and said it discredited the club, its management and Real Madrid TV.
What Tebas said
Tebas posted on social media on Friday criticising how Real Madrid TV covers officiating in the club's matches. He argued the channel selects the incidents that suit its argument, repeats the grievance and points the finger at supposed enemies — a method he likened to propaganda techniques associated with Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's propaganda minister.
He was responding to articles by two journalists in El Debate which suggested he and LaLiga were acting against Madrid's interests, and he stressed his comparison was with propaganda techniques, not with an ideology or with Madrid supporters. The club said that clarification did not lessen the seriousness of what he had said.
Real Madrid hit back
In their statement, published in full by TNT Sports, Madrid called it "absolutely intolerable and extraordinarily serious" for someone holding two of the most senior positions in Spanish football to use such a comparison. The club accused Tebas of repeated attacks on Madrid, its president and its media outlets, and said his conduct showed a lack of the neutrality and impartiality his roles require.
The demand is not a warning shot. Madrid want him gone from both jobs, and they want it now — the latest, and by far the most explosive, chapter in a relationship that has been broken for years.
A feud that keeps escalating
This is the second time in a matter of weeks that Madrid have called for new leadership at LaLiga. In September the club demanded a change after Tebas dismissed their complaints about refereeing decisions as a smokescreen for shortcomings on the pitch, following a derby defeat by Atletico Madrid.
On the pitch, Jose Mourinho's side remain one of Europe's form teams — they won a seven-goal thriller against Roma in the Champions League this month — but the boardroom battle is now louder than anything happening on the field. Mourinho himself has complained that Madrid are regularly hurt by referees, a grievance Real Madrid TV amplifies before and after matches.
So what happens next?
Tebas has survived Madrid's anger before and there is no mechanism by which one club, however powerful, can simply remove a league president. But the language used on both sides has now crossed a line that will be hard to walk back. Every refereeing decision in a Madrid match for the rest of the season will be viewed through this row, and LaLiga's credibility — with sponsors, broadcasters and its other 19 clubs watching a public fight with its biggest draw — is the real collateral damage.
Attention will also turn back to the football quickly: Madrid's next fixtures, and the transfer planning already under way for 2027 — see our look at Madrid's summer priorities — risk being overshadowed until someone blinks.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Tebas picked the one comparison in public life that ends careers, and he aimed it at the most powerful club in his own league. Whether you believe Madrid's refereeing campaign is cynical or sincere, a league president cannot use that language and expect to govern with authority afterwards. Madrid will not get a resignation by statement alone — but Tebas has handed them, and everyone else tired of this feud, the strongest argument yet that his time is up. Should Tebas resign over the comparison, or should Madrid accept his clarification and move on? Let us know in the comments.
