La Liga president Javier Tebas has been accused of crossing the line after comparing Real Madrid’s club television channel with the propaganda methods of Nazi Germany’s Joseph Goebbels.
Tebas said Real Madrid’s leadership was conducting an “orchestra of mouthpieces”, with Real Madrid TV acting as its soloist. He argued that the channel repeatedly presented the same message, identified those it considered responsible and portrayed events in a way that suited the club.
He later insisted he had not compared anyone with the Nazis, but was referring only to propaganda techniques.
Real Madrid responded with an official statement describing Tebas’s comments as unacceptable and calling for his removal as both La Liga president and vice-president of the Spanish football federation. The club also accused him of bias and raised the Negreira case, saying unanswered questions remained and that relevant documents had been sent to UEFA.
Tebas rejected what he described as an attempt to intimidate him and turned the focus to the fixture schedule. He asked how often Real Madrid had requested match changes and how frequently La Liga had accommodated those requests. He also accused the club’s leadership of seeking to destroy the Spanish championship.
The latest dispute followed two articles in Spanish newspaper El Debate by journalists Tomas Gonzalez-Martin and Jesus Urdiola. Their reports discussed refereeing, the Negreira case and the fixture calendar, including Real Madrid’s complaint that they had been scheduled to play Valencia on the Saturday immediately after an away Champions League match.
Tebas said the articles supported Real Madrid’s position so closely that they were difficult to distinguish from official statements by the club. He also urged people to consider occasions when La Liga had agreed to the club’s requests.
The confrontation is part of a longer dispute. On 22 September, Real Madrid publicly said Spanish football needed a different La Liga leader. Just over three weeks later, the club again demanded Tebas’s resignation.
The rivalry intensified in 2021 when Florentino Perez launched the European Super League project, opposed by Tebas. La Liga subsequently agreed a deal worth almost two billion euros with investment fund CVC, which Real Madrid challenged in court. The club lost its appeal in June 2026 but said it would take the case to the Supreme Court. In February, Real Madrid and UEFA agreed principles for resolving their dispute over the Super League, but no similar settlement has been reached with Tebas.
The Negreira case remains another major source of tension. Barcelona paid millions of euros between 2001 and 2018 to companies linked to the then vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee. The club says the payments were for referee-analysis reports. While the payments have been established and the investigation continues, there is currently no evidence that referees were bribed or that particular match results were influenced.
Tebas has said he has supported Real Madrid since childhood, after he and his brother divided their allegiance between Spain’s two biggest clubs. Real Madrid’s television channel, however, regularly criticises referees, focusing mainly on decisions it believes went against the club.
Neither side has shown any sign of backing down, leaving the dispute between Tebas and Real Madrid unresolved.