Tebas accuses Real Madrid of fuelling a victimhood narrative

Javier Tebas has renewed his criticism of Real Madrid, accusing the club’s leadership and official channel of promoting a narrative in which the team is constantly wronged by refereeing and Liga decisions. The president of the Spanish Liga also took aim at journalists who have discussed the club’s complaints about match scheduling.

“Real Madrid’s leadership conducts an orchestra of its mouthpieces, while the club’s official channel does the singing at full volume,” Tebas said. He believes the channel is part of a media operation that fosters among supporters the idea that their club is being treated unfairly.

Tebas’s remarks appeared on his social media accounts in response to articles by El Debate about Real Madrid’s objections to the league schedule, particularly the date of its match against Valencia on November 7. The articles also covered the Negreira case and refereeing decisions that, according to those reports, had benefited or harmed the club.

Tebas first targeted the journalists who wrote the articles, Tomás González-Martín and Jesús Orihuela. In his view, their work now resembles statements issued by the Madrid club’s leadership. Addressing Tomás, he said: “It is becoming harder every day to tell your articles apart from a statement by Real Madrid’s leadership. Tomás, in particular, you have become its official spokesperson, to the point of using expressions identical to those I heard from a senior executive at Valdebebas.”

More broadly, he accused them of repeating material from inside the club without sufficient professional distance. In another message, he likened the journalist to “a parrot, but with a keyboard”. Tebas described what he sees as the club’s approach as a cycle of selecting favourable images, alleging unfair treatment and identifying adversaries. “The tune they play is always the same: choose the images that suit them, repeat that they are victims of injustice, fuel doubt and point to enemies,” he said.

Tebas also compared the methods he attributes to the club and its channel with propaganda techniques associated with Joseph Goebbels. He clarified that, in his view, the comparison concerned repetition and the construction of a narrative, not the ideology or supporters of Real Madrid.

The Liga president then turned to the schedule dispute. He called on Real Madrid to disclose its past requests to change match dates and kick-off times, along with the requests accepted by the Liga. Addressing Tomás González-Martín, he said the club ranked first in the number of such requests and argued that approved requests should also be part of the discussion, rather than focusing only on the one that fuels controversy. He also called for requests connected with events authorised under the “higher licence” at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium to be included.

For Tebas, scheduling affects more than Real Madrid: it also has implications for opponents, other clubs, supporters and audiovisual broadcasting commitments. He rejects the idea that a rejected change, by itself, demonstrates persecution. He says the Liga is defending the competition and wants the record of requests and responses presented in full.

He also challenged Real Madrid’s channel to devote a programme to the club’s requests and the Liga’s replies, instead of focusing only on controversial refereeing clips. Tebas says the pressures he denounces are continuing and accuses media coverage of highlighting material that feeds a sense of injustice without supplying all the context needed to assess the facts.