Real Madrid have again demanded the resignation of La Liga president Javier Tebas after he compared the club's efforts to discredit referees with the propaganda techniques used in Nazi Germany.
Tebas criticised Madrid on social media on Friday, taking aim at how the club's television channel highlights what it considers major errors by match officials set to take charge of the club's upcoming games. In his post, Tebas wrote: "The executive of Real Madrid has an orchestra of mouthpieces and Real Madrid leads the way. 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." He added: "The comparison is with the techniques, not with the ideology or, of course, with Madrid fans."
Madrid hit back with a statement saying Tebas, who has clashed repeatedly with club president Florentino Pérez over the years, was unfit to represent Spain's top clubs. The statement said: "Javier Tebas's repeated conduct demonstrates a lack of neutrality, respect, and impartiality incompatible with his institutional responsibilities. His constant attacks on Real Madrid and those demanding transparency and regeneration represent, in our club's view, a genuine scourge for Spanish football." The club demanded his "immediate resignation".
Head coach José Mourinho has also complained that Madrid, who hold a record 36 Spanish league titles, are regularly hurt by refereeing decisions. This is not the first time the club has called for Tebas to step down this season: in September, Madrid demanded his resignation after he criticised the club for attacking the referees following a 2-1 defeat at Atlético Madrid.
In Friday's statement, Madrid also repeated a complaint that Tebas has not done enough regarding the ongoing judicial investigation into alleged payments by Barcelona to an official on the Spanish football federation's refereeing committee.
Spain to challenge FIFA sanctions at CAS
Separately, Spain's football federation will take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after FIFA rejected its appeal against sanctions imposed over Islamophobic chants by supporters during a March match against Egypt.
FIFA fined the federation $20,000 and ordered it to close at least 15% of the available seats for Spain's next home friendly. The sanctions relate to chants of "If you don't jump, you're a Muslim" by some Spain fans during a World Cup warm-up match at the RCDE Stadium, home of La Liga club Espanyol, which ended 0-0.
The RFEF had argued the word "Muslim" was "neither insulting nor pejorative" and said the conduct should be assessed under FIFA's article 17, covering political, ideological, religious or offensive messages, rather than article 15, which deals with discrimination and racist abuse. FIFA's disciplinary committee rejected that argument, ruling that article 15 does not require the explicit use of a slur and that a term can be discriminatory when used in context as "an insult, taunt or marker of inferiority".
