“I haven’t called anyone a Nazi”: Tebas stands by his Goebbels comparison

“I haven’t called anyone a Nazi, of course. I was talking about a communication strategy. I don’t see why I should have to account for that,” Javier Tebas told L’Équipe in an interview conducted in Monaco on the fringes of the Sportel convention, relayed on Wednesday by RMC Sport and So Foot. The LaLiga president is withdrawing nothing from Friday’s outburst.

On Friday, on his social accounts, he wrote: “Real Madrid’s board orchestrates a genuine communication machine, and Real Madrid TV leads the dance.” Then: “This method echoes the propaganda mechanisms exploited by Goebbels, Propaganda Minister of Nazi Germany: systematic repetition, building an enemy and subordinating facts to the narrative.” He was careful to say the comparison covered “those propaganda techniques, not an ideology”. According to So Foot, he insists he only did what others did before him, up to Josep Borrell speaking about Putin’s communication.

Real Madrid still demand his resignation

For the club, the comparison is “absolutely intolerable and extremely serious”, his “immediate resignation” has been demanded, and Tebas’s caveat “does not mitigate in any way the deeply offensive, morally repugnant nature of his words, unworthy of the institution”. At the Bernabéu, against Sevilla, a banner read “This is not football, it’s Tebas and Negreira”, and chants called for him to go. Tebas answered by pointing to “flagrant irresponsibility” from the club.

The calendar is where this war touches the punter

Friday’s post followed two facts: Vinicius’s red card against Villarreal, punished with a four-match ban, and the kickoff time of Real Madrid v Valencia, scheduled for 7 November less than 72 hours after the trip to Athens in the Champions League. Fewer than 72 hours between two matches means a rotated squad and protected starters: the one place this war touches a bet.

On a possible sanction in Spain, Tebas says he knows nothing: “I don’t know… It would seem unheard of to me. Would that make citizens of a first and a second class?” What happens next reads off the fixture list anyway: Leipzig at the Bernabéu tonight for matchday three of the Champions League, then the Clásico away at the Camp Nou on Sunday.